Who was Georgia O'Keeffe's influential teacher at Columbia University Teachers College?

Arthur Wesley Dow was Georgia O'Keeffe's influential teacher at Columbia University Teachers College. His ideas about composition and personal expression helped redirect her artistic development.

Dow argued that art could be organized through elements such as line, color, and tone rather than relying only on realistic representation. O'Keeffe encountered his teaching after a period when she had become dissatisfied with the limitations of academic art.

William Merritt Chase was also an important teacher in O'Keeffe's education, but he taught her at the Art Students League in New York. That distinction is a common source of confusion when the two educators are mentioned together.

Dow's influence encouraged O'Keeffe to experiment with abstraction. In 1915, she produced a series of charcoal drawings that she sent to the photographer and gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz, who later exhibited them. Those drawings helped launch her professional career.