Who taught Georgia O'Keeffe at the University of Virginia summer school?

Alon Bement taught Georgia O'Keeffe at the University of Virginia summer school.

O'Keeffe attended summer sessions at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville in 1912 and 1914. Alon Bement, an educator connected with the progressive teaching ideas of Arthur Wesley Dow, introduced her to Dow's approach to art instruction. This experience helped move her away from simply reproducing observed objects.

Dow emphasized composition, line, color, and the expressive arrangement of forms. O'Keeffe later applied those ideas in abstract charcoal drawings and watercolors. Those works became important evidence of her early break with conventional academic realism.

Arthur Wesley Dow is a frequent source of confusion because his theories strongly influenced O'Keeffe, even though Bement was her direct teacher at the Virginia summer school. Alfred Stieglitz was her later dealer, photographer, and husband, not her instructor there.