Georgia O'Keeffe attended the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago in 1905.
O'Keeffe began formal art education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1905. The institution, founded in the nineteenth century, combined an art school with a major museum collection. Her studies there came before her later enrollment at the Art Students League of New York.
At the time, O'Keeffe was being trained in academic methods based on observation, drawing, and painting. She eventually became dissatisfied with the conventions of realistic representation and pursued a more personal approach to abstraction. Her shift was influenced by the ideas of Arthur Wesley Dow, whose teaching emphasized line, color, and composition rather than simply reproducing appearances.
Chicago is sometimes overlooked because New York and New Mexico dominate accounts of O'Keeffe's mature career. The Chicago school was nevertheless an important first stage in her professional training, preceding her New York studies in 1907.