San Francisco : Chronicle Books, c2010.
117 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 22 cm.
One of the things I love about biographies for young people is that they are often short, vivid, compelling and not overwrought with insignificant detail. I found this biography of Georgia O'Keeffe to be a beautiful introduction to the painter.
The book is handsomely designed with many lovely reproductions and photos that bring alive O'Keeffe's long and productive life of painting. I think the thing that I really enjoyed was how the book conveys just how new and avant garde the work of O'Keeffe was at the time she was creating it. Her work seems so accessible and mainstream now, but there really was nothing like it when she was painting. Her mix of stunning color, expressionist vision, realism, and large scale focus on the single simple subject are all really amazing.
I also appreciate how the biography both pays tribute to O'Keeffe as a trailblazing woman artist, but focuses on her mainly as an innovative, interesting and successful American artist. The biography pulls together a great deal of interesting information - her early farm years in Wisconsin, her teaching experience in rural Texas, her time at the Art Institute of Chicago, and of course her productive years in New York City and New Mexico (where the O'Keeffe Museum is located)
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