spring 1914
Class with Arthur Wesley Dow at Columbia University
In the spring she took a class with Dow himself at Teachers College, Columbia University; he influenced still further her thinking about how art is made.
early 1916
O’Keeffe’s drawings reach Stieglitz
She mailed the charcoal drawings to her friend and former Teachers College classmate Anita Pollitzer, who took them to Stieglitz at his gallery 291 early in the year. He prized their purity and sincerity and said he would like to show them.
1916
Ten of her drawings shown at gallery 291
In April Stieglitz exhibited ten of her drawings at his gallery 291, which promoted avant-garde American and European artists and photographers.
1917
Exhibition of her work organised by Stieglitz
Stieglitz held an exhibition of her work, and O’Keeffe came to New York to see it. From that visit he began to photograph her — and went on doing so for many years, often in the nude.
1918
Stieglitz leaves his family for O’Keeffe
Within a month Stieglitz took the first of many nude photographs of her at his family’s apartment while his wife was away; his wife came home and gave him an ultimatum, and he left at once and moved in with O’Keeffe. The divorce, delayed by his first wife and her family, took six years — until the wedding in December 1924.
1918
Moves to New York at Stieglitz’s invitation
Stieglitz invited her to live and work in New York, promising a quiet studio and to underwrite a year of painting; to accept she resigned from teaching at West Texas State. He discouraged her use of watercolour, which was associated with amateur women artists.