Opened in 1997, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum (217 Johnson St., 505/946-1000, www.okeeffemuseum.org, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. daily, open until 8 p.m. Fri., free from 5–8 p.m. on the first Fri. of the month, otherwise $10 adult, $8 seniors and students, $5 for New Mexico residents, free 18 and under) honors the artist whose name is inextricably bound with New Mexico.

The contrary member of the New York avant-garde (“Nothing is less real than realism,” she famously said) first visited the state in the 1920s and then moved to Abiquiu permanently in 1949, after the death of her lover, photographer Alfred Stieglitz.

Initially, the museum was a bit of a hollow monument, as O’Keeffe’s finest works—her signature sensuous, near-abstract flower blossoms, for instance—have already been ensconced in other famous museums the world over, leaving only the rarities here (who knew she did illustrations for a Dole Fruit Co. ad campaign?) to hang alongside loosely related special exhibitions on her contemporaries, or those whose work she influenced or admired.

But in mid-2005, the museum received the collection of the Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation, the trust that had been managing the artist’s assets since her death in 1986. The transaction brought some exciting new treasures—although much of the space is still given over to exhibitions on her contemporaries or on those whose work she influenced or admired.