The best books about Georgia O'Keeffe are her own 1976 Georgia O'Keeffe, Roxana Robinson's standard biography Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life, and Hunter Drohojowska-Philp's Full Bloom, with A Sense of Place focusing on her New Mexico years. No artist is more identified with New Mexico: from Ghost Ranch and Abiquiú, O'Keeffe made the cliffs, bones, and sky of the high desert into some of the most recognized images in American art. This reading list covers her, and points toward the wider art literature of the state. For the collector's view, see the O'Keeffe art-books collecting guide; for the full canon, Best Books Set in New Mexico.
Published June 2026 · Curated by Josh Eldred, New Mexico Literacy Project
Georgia O'Keeffe — Georgia O'Keeffe
Late in life, O'Keeffe assembled this large-format book of her work with her own commentary on the paintings — rare, direct, and unsentimental. The closest thing to hearing her explain herself, and the best place to start because it pairs the images with her own voice.
Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life — Roxana Robinson
The standard full biography: thorough, balanced, and strong on both the New York Stieglitz years and the New Mexico decades that followed. If you read one book about her life rather than her art, read this one.
Full Bloom: The Art and Life of Georgia O'Keeffe — Hunter Drohojowska-Philp
The other major modern biography, with particular attention to O'Keeffe's independence and her reinvention in New Mexico. A vivid, readable companion or alternative to Robinson.
Georgia O'Keeffe and New Mexico: A Sense of Place — Barbara Buhler Lynes et al.
For the New Mexico story specifically: a beautifully illustrated study, from the scholar who catalogued O'Keeffe's work, pairing the Ghost Ranch and Abiquiú landscapes with the paintings they produced. The essential book on O'Keeffe's New Mexico.
Beyond O'Keeffe: the art of New Mexico
O'Keeffe was one figure in a much larger story. The Taos Society of Artists made Taos a painting capital a decade before she arrived, the Santa Fe and Taos colonies drew artists from around the world (see Mabel Dodge Luhan's circle), and the tradition continues in the state's living art scene, documented in the guide to New Mexico contemporary art. Together they make New Mexico one of the most painted places in America.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best book about Georgia O'Keeffe?
Roxana Robinson's Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life is the standard biography; Full Bloom is the other major life; and her own 1976 Georgia O'Keeffe gives her in her own words.
Where did Georgia O'Keeffe live in New Mexico?
At Ghost Ranch and in the village of Abiquiú in northern New Mexico, the landscapes of her most famous work.
What books cover the New Mexico art colonies?
See the collecting guides to the Taos Society of Artists and New Mexico contemporary art for the wider picture beyond O'Keeffe.
Cite This Guide
Eldred, J. (June 2026). Best Books About Georgia O'Keeffe & New Mexico Art. New Mexico Literacy Project.
https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/best-books-about-georgia-okeeffe
Original curation by Josh Eldred. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.