Which teacher’s design ideas influenced Georgia O’Keeffe at Columbia University’s Teachers College?

Arthur Wesley Dow’s design ideas influenced Georgia O’Keeffe at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

O’Keeffe studied with Dow in New York in 1914 and 1915. Dow taught that art could be organized through the principles of line, mass, and color, rather than depending only on realistic representation. This approach gave O’Keeffe a framework for developing highly personal compositions.

Her later abstract charcoal drawings show how she applied these principles. Instead of depicting recognizable objects, she used sweeping lines, curves, and tonal contrasts to express visual and emotional ideas. Those drawings helped establish the direction that eventually brought her to Alfred Stieglitz’s attention.

O’Keeffe had already encountered Dow’s teaching through Alon Bement, who had taught her at the University of Virginia. William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri were also important teachers in her earlier training, but Dow was the figure most directly associated with her shift toward abstraction.