Georgia O'Keeffe moved to New York in 1918 to pursue her art career. Alfred Stieglitz arranged for her to come east after he had begun exhibiting her abstract drawings.
Before the move, O'Keeffe had taught art in Texas, South Carolina, and Virginia and had developed a distinctive approach based on abstraction rather than conventional academic representation. Her charcoal drawings attracted attention because they used line and shape to express ideas and feelings without depicting recognizable objects.
In New York, she entered the circle surrounding Stieglitz's gallery and encountered the work of European and American modernists. She also continued to build a reputation separate from the gallery's broader program.
The move did not mark the beginning of her artistic training; O'Keeffe had already studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League. It marked her transition into the professional New York art world.