Who taught Georgia O'Keeffe at the University of Virginia in 1912?

Alon Bement taught Georgia O'Keeffe at the University of Virginia in 1912.

O'Keeffe encountered Bement while working in Charlottesville as an art instructor. Bement was associated with the ideas of Arthur Wesley Dow, whose approach emphasized composition, line, color, and personal expression rather than faithful copying of visible objects.

Through Bement and Dow’s teaching, O'Keeffe encountered a method that helped her move away from the academic realism she had learned earlier. She later studied directly with Dow at Columbia University Teachers College in New York. These lessons became important foundations for the abstract charcoal drawings she made in 1915 and 1916.

A common mix-up is to name Dow as the teacher she met first in Virginia. Dow was highly influential, but Bement was the instructor connected with O'Keeffe’s 1912 work at the University of Virginia. O'Keeffe’s teaching career also included positions in Texas and South Carolina.