NONFICTION - June 7, 1992

MISS O’KEEFFE by Christine Taylor Patten and Alaro Cardona-Hine (Albuquerque University of New Mexico Press: $16.95; 210 pp.) Told through the eyes of a companion/nurse (herself an artist) who cared for Georgia O’Keeffe during her last years, this work is a departure from previous portraits of the celebrated artist. Patten describes O’Keeffe’s ranch in Abiquiu, N. M., the household staff that kept order, and how a regal O’Keeffe coped with encroaching blindness and old age. Then in her 90s, O’Keeffe reminisces--without bitterness--on an active life. A friendship develops between the two women, who bake bread together. An awed Patten describes O’Keeffe: Her “bones were exquisite . . . the folds of skin on her back . . . like velvet.” The book is well written, even as it gushes with affection.