No. 5 Special

1911–1914

Teaches art in Virginia and Texas

From 1911 she taught art, among other places at Chatham Institute, where she had been a pupil herself; from 1912 to 1914 she taught in the public schools of Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle and worked in the summers as a teaching assistant to Alon Bement.

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.

autumn 1916

Heads the art department of a college in Canyon, Texas

From the autumn she was chair of the art department at West Texas State Normal College, also looking after her youngest sister Claudia at her mother’s request. She loved sunrises and sunsets, grew fond of intense and nocturnal colours, and painted without preliminary sketches in order to express her most private sensations.

April 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.