O’Keeffe at the University of Virginia, 1912-1914

The future of O’Keeffe’s artistic practice shifted dramatically in 1912 when she took a summer course taught by Alon Bement at the University of Virginia. He introduced her to the revolutionary ideas of his colleague Arthur Wesley Dow, who encouraged an imaginative process of making art that was grounded in personal expression and harmonious design that led to an interpretation of the natural world, not a representation of it. This suite of watercolors demonstrates O’Keeffe’s experimentation in composition and simplification of forms while she was a student at the University of Virginia from 1912-1914.