Who was Georgia O'Keeffe's teacher at Columbia University who encouraged her to explore abstraction?

Arthur Wesley Dow was Georgia O'Keeffe's teacher at Columbia University who encouraged her to explore abstraction.

O'Keeffe studied with Dow at Columbia's Teachers College in New York in 1914 and 1915. Dow taught principles of composition based on line, color, and tone rather than requiring students to copy nature literally.

These ideas had a lasting effect on O'Keeffe. They helped her develop a more personal approach and contributed to the abstract charcoal drawings she made in 1915. Those drawings later came to the attention of Alfred Stieglitz.

William Merritt Chase was also one of O'Keeffe's teachers, but he taught her earlier at the Art Students League. The distinction matters: Chase represented academic instruction, while Dow's approach helped open a path toward the abstraction that shaped O'Keeffe's breakthrough.