Based on the extensive Pueblo painting collections of the School of American Research in Santa Fe, the book traces the lives and examines the achievements of seven key artist: Fred Kabotie and Otis Polelonema of Hopi, Velino Shije Herrera (Ma-Pe-Wi) of Zia, and Awa Tsireh (Alfonso Roybal), Crescencio Martinez (Ta'e), Oqwa Pi (Abel Sanchez), and Tonita Pena (Quah Ah) of San Ildefonso.

Brody also explores the role played by the individuals who supported and promoted the Pueblo artists' work, including writers Mary Austin and Alice Corbin Henderson, archaeologist Edgar Lee Hewett, artist and scholar Kenneth M. Chapman, painter John Sloan, and art patrons Mabel Dodge Luhan and Amelia Elizabeth White.

Pueblo Indian Painting places this important but underappreciated fine art squarely within the contexts of Pueblo culture and Euro-American modernism, bringing long-overdue recognition to the tradition and its preeminent practitioners as a vital part of American art history.