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Why did Georgia O’Keeffe begin making abstract art in 1915?

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Alfred Stieglitz: photograph of Georgia O'Keeffe — Georgia O’Keeffe Georgia O'Keeffe, photograph by Alfred Stieglitz, 1922.

Georgia O’Keeffe began making abstract art in 1915 while teaching at Columbia College in South Carolina, driven by a desire to find a purely personal means of expression.1

Her shift toward abstraction was heavily influenced by the Modernist teachings of Arthur Wesley Dow, whom she studied under at Columbia University in 1914. Dow rejected the traditional academic approach of imitative realism, which O’Keeffe had previously found unfulfilling. Instead, he championed the idea that an artist’s work should reflect their own personal ideas and feelings, visualized through the harmonious arrangement of line, color, and notan (the Japanese system of light and dark).213

By applying these principles, O’Keeffe moved beyond mere imitation to create innovative, abstract works. In doing so, she transcended Dow’s initial instruction and established herself as a significant figure among the Modernist artists of her time.1