ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation / Thesis: “LIVING ON PAPER ...

her new art to him for his critique (Figs. 3.16-17). In Martin’s class, O’Keeffe would
have seen how the familiar practices of drawing and design linked her earlier art
experiences to the kind of work she now aspired to make. Martin, like Bement, helped
her to feel at home seeing, discussing, and eventually making modern art.
In Martin’s painting class O’Keeffe met and became friends with her fellow
Teachers College students Anita Pollitzer and Dorothy True, who joined her in
responding to their teacher’s interest in modernism. 18 There is no evidence that Martin
specifically urged the three to visit 291, but they connected his teaching with what they
saw at the gallery. Pollitzer described the trio of friends moving between “the League &
Mr. Martin & the Photo Secession.” 19
In the summer of 1915 Pollitzer and O’Keeffe
bought a past issue of Camera Work as a present for Martin. He told Pollitzer that he
greatly appreciated the issue (July 1911, No. 34/35), which was devoted to Rodin’s
drawings. 20
O’Keeffe’s Return to 291
During the fall of 1914 and the spring of 1915, O’Keeffe ventured into the heart
of the New York modernist milieu: 291. She was borne along by the infectious
enthusiasm of her two classmates. When the three attended exhibitions at 291, Benita
Eisler observes, “O’Keeffe seems to have remained an unobtrusive presence, letting the
lively Anita and the seductive blonde Dorothy engage the impresario.” 21
O’Keeffe
recalled one visit when Stieglitz asked her friends such personal questions that she
“backed away thinking, ‘That isn’t for me. Let them talk if they want to.’” 22
O’Keeffe
did not back away from the art on the walls, however. Her appreciation of the art at 291
had been transformed since her first visit to the gallery. In 1908, her exposure to modern
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