Alon Bement taught Georgia O'Keeffe color theory and design at the University of Virginia in 1912.
O'Keeffe attended the University of Virginia during the summers of 1912 and 1914, where Bement was a faculty member. His teaching introduced ideas associated with Arthur Wesley Dow, especially the use of line, color, and composition as independent artistic elements.
Those ideas helped O'Keeffe move away from copying visible objects and toward abstraction. She later studied directly with Dow at Teachers College, Columbia University, beginning in 1914. Dow’s influence became especially important to her mature approach.
Bement and Dow are sometimes confused because Bement transmitted Dow’s principles before O'Keeffe studied with Dow himself. The distinction matters when tracing the development of her early abstract style.