Which art teacher introduced Georgia O'Keeffe to influential modernist ideas at Teachers College?
Answer
Arthur Wesley Dow
Arthur Wesley Dow introduced Georgia O'Keeffe to influential modernist ideas at Teachers College.
O'Keeffe studied with Dow at Columbia University’s Teachers College in New York around 1914. His approach emphasized composition, line, color, and the expressive arrangement of forms rather than simply copying the visible world.
Dow’s teaching helped O'Keeffe reconsider the academic methods she had learned earlier. She began producing increasingly abstract works, including a celebrated series of charcoal drawings made in 1915.
William Merritt Chase was also an important teacher in O'Keeffe’s education, but he taught her at the Art Students League. Arthur Wesley Dow is the teacher specifically connected with the shift that opened her way toward abstraction.