How did Asian art influence Georgia O’Keeffe’s Modernist style?

Georgia O’Keeffe’s Modernist style was significantly influenced by the aesthetic principles of Asian art, which she encountered through the teachings of Arthur Wesley Dow.1

Dow, an influential art educator, rejected the traditional focus on imitative realism. Instead, he championed the Modernist belief that an artist’s work should visualize personal ideas and feelings through the harmonious arrangement of line, color, and notan—a Japanese system for organizing light and dark values. O’Keeffe had an intuitive appreciation for this aesthetic, having been exposed to it through early art manuals, and Dow’s approach provided her with a vital alternative to the standard academic curriculum.1

This influence remained a foundational element of her work throughout her career. Even as she shifted toward painting recognizable forms in the 1920s, her compositions continued to reflect the "less is more" Modernist aesthetic and the principles of Asian art, which she integrated alongside techniques derived from photography, such as close-up views and cropping.2