Famous Homes: Georgia O'Keeffe's Abiquiú Home

Few famous homes have such an iconic connection between both location and inhabitant as the adobe structure in Abiquiú, New Mexico that legendary painter Georgia O'Keeffe called home.

After living just a few miles away at Ghost Ranch for several summers, she realized that the ranch was not suited for year-round living (especially in the colder winter months) and went in search of a permanent home. She found it in the small village of Abiquiú. The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum now owns both homes and the website has a succinct accounting:

Georgia O’Keeffe maintained two homes in Northern New Mexico. Her summer house, twelve miles from Abiquiú, sits on 12 acres at the edge of a 21,000-acre property called Ghost Ranch. When O’Keeffe purchased the parcel in 1940, the greater Ghost Ranch operated as a dude ranch—a destination for visitors and tourists...Though breathtakingly situated, O’Keeffe’s Ghost Ranch home was not suitable for her to live in year-round. O’Keeffe purchased a larger home, in the village of Abiquiú, for its well-irrigated garden and the comfort it offered in winter. While both houses are owned by the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, only the Abiquiú Home and Studio is open for public tours.

The O’Keeffe Home and Studio reflects a blend of Native American and Spanish Colonial building styles, regional architectural traditions dating back centuries. The oldest rooms of the house were probably built in 1744. The house was expanded in the 19th century into a pueblo-style adobe (mud brick) hacienda, with rows of rooms organized around a common open space, or plazuela.

It was one of the courtyard walls of the home that first attracted O’Keeffe. She recalled: “As I climbed and walked about in the ruin I found a patio with a very pretty well house and bucket to draw up water. It was a good-sized patio with a long wall with a door on one side. That wall with a door in it was something I had to have.”

The 5,000-square-foot compound was in ruins in 1945 when she purchased the home from the Catholic Church. For the next four years, O’Keeffe supervised its restoration, which was carried out by her friend, Maria Chabot. O’Keeffe finally made Abiquiú her permanent home in 1949. The special character of the property, a quiet sanctuary from which to draw inspiration, perfectly suited O’Keeffe’s needs. O’Keeffe lived in the home from 1949 until 1984. She died in Santa Fe on March 6, 1986, at the age of 98. The O’Keeffe Home and Studio was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1998 and is now part of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.

There are several things that strike me about O'Keeffe's home and her personal style. She famously said when renovating the home that she did not want a Native American home, she did not want a Spanish Colonial home, she wanted "my home." Yet it is a blending of all those elements--the Native style straw-and-mud adobe texture outside and in as well as the spartan and functional design with open kiva fireplaces in corners that solidify the unique profile of this house. The near Zen-like interiors are a prefect foil for the type of pared-down sensibility of Modernism and Mid-Century Modern furniture styles. She preferred objects like Eero Saarinen's 1946 Womb Chair, his 1957 Tulip chair (previously here), the Eames' 1946 Molded Plywood Lounge Chair (previously here), and Alexander Calder mobiles. And it all works perfectly together.

A vintage view of the living room at Georgia O'Keefe's home with Saarinen's Womb Chair, at left.

A current view of the living room with the Womb Chair and ottoman.

The Eames-designed Molded Plywood Lounge Chair in red in the foreground.

A Le Corbusier-style lounge chair to the right of the fireplace with an O'Keefe sculpture on the hearth.

I just love this portrait of O'Keefe by photographer Christopher Springmann from 1974. He is a very talented portraitist because he got O'Keeffe to relax into a sweet sort of smile...

You can visit the Georgia O'Keeffe House in Abiquiú! Make reservations here. And then head to Santa Fe to view her work at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, tickets available here.

Happy designing!