Which art educator strongly influenced Georgia O'Keeffe's early abstract style?

Arthur Wesley Dow strongly influenced Georgia O'Keeffe's early abstract style.

O'Keeffe encountered Dow's ideas while studying at Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York. Dow emphasized composition, line, tone, and color rather than simply copying nature. His approach gave her a way to organize images through design and feeling, which helped lead her toward abstraction.

This influence is different from the role of Alfred Stieglitz, who later exhibited and promoted her work. Stieglitz was a photographer and gallerist; Dow was the art educator whose teaching reshaped her understanding of how an artwork could be constructed.

O'Keeffe's 1915 charcoal abstractions are often discussed as a major turning point. They reduced forms to sweeping lines and tonal relationships, reflecting the kind of principles Dow taught. Her later paintings remained connected to observation, but their compositions were not based solely on literal description.