Gardens of the Taos Artists

An exclusive look at the historic home gardens and vernacular landscapes of the modernist artists who flocked to Taos, New Mexico, during the early-twentieth century.

Richly illustrated, architectural historian Audra Bellmore’s Gardens of the Taos Artists centers the homes, gardens, and intimate landscapes of the Taos artist colonies and explores how these artists interacted with the world around them. Joseph Henry Sharp, D. H. Lawrence, Mabel Dodge Luhan, Victor Higgins, Eanger Irving Couse, Georgia O’Keeffe, and many others adopted the regional style of their new homeland and integrated tastes from the East and Midwest to create a distinctive environment in the American Southwest. Gardens of the Taos Artists offers a fresh perspective on the Taos artists colonies that combines historical and architectural detail with intimate biographical narratives, making it an invaluable resource for readers interested in the artistic legacy of New Mexico’s art colonies.

Gardens of the Taos Artists contains descriptions of each garden and home landscape, including a history of the site, a discussion of its use and function, and an overview of its development and significance to the region’s cultural landscape. While many other books focus on these artists and the ways in which New Mexico’s landscape has influenced their art, this book is the first to focus exclusively on their personal everyday gardens and landscapes, establishing links between their works of art and the vernacular landscapes of Taos.