Which art teacher's ideas about composition strongly influenced Georgia O'Keeffe after 1912?

Arthur Wesley Dow's ideas about composition strongly influenced Georgia O'Keeffe after 1912. Dow taught that art could be organized through line, color, and tonal relationships rather than relying only on realistic representation.

O'Keeffe encountered Dow's approach while studying at the University of Virginia with Alon Bement, who had worked with Dow. The ideas helped her move away from the academic realism she had learned earlier and toward simplified, more abstract designs.

This influence is especially important because O'Keeffe's breakthrough abstractions emerged before her best-known flower and New Mexico paintings. Her 1915 charcoal drawings explored expressive forms without directly depicting recognizable objects, marking a major turning point in her development.

Dow was not O'Keeffe's husband, gallery owner, or primary New York promoter. Alfred Stieglitz later exhibited her work, while William Merritt Chase had taught her earlier at the Art Students League. Dow's role was chiefly theoretical and pedagogical.