Alfred Stieglitz first exhibited Georgia O'Keeffe's charcoal drawings in 1916.
The drawings were shown at Stieglitz's New York gallery, 291, after his friend and fellow artist Anita Pollitzer brought them to him. Stieglitz was impressed by their abstract quality and displayed them without first obtaining O'Keeffe's permission. The exhibition helped bring her work to the attention of the New York art world.
O'Keeffe was then teaching art in Texas and Virginia, and she had not yet moved permanently to New York. Her early charcoal abstractions were not conventional landscapes or portraits; they explored line, shape, and feeling in a way associated with American modernism. The 1916 presentation marked a decisive public beginning for her professional career.
The year is sometimes confused with 1918, when O'Keeffe moved to New York after Stieglitz offered to support her as an artist. Those are separate milestones: 1916 was the first exhibition, while 1918 marked her major relocation.