Which artist influenced Georgia O'Keeffe through ideas about composition and design?

Arthur Wesley Dow influenced Georgia O'Keeffe through his ideas about composition and design.

O'Keeffe encountered Dow's teaching while studying at the University of Virginia and later at Teachers College, Columbia University. Dow encouraged students to organize line, color, and tone expressively rather than simply copy nature. His approach helped O'Keeffe move away from the academic realism she had been taught earlier.

This influence is especially important for understanding her early abstractions. Dow did not directly teach O'Keeffe every major style she later developed, and he was not the only influence on her work. Her own experimentation with charcoal, watercolor, and simplified natural forms led to a distinctive language that became central to American modernism.