Georgia O'Keeffe began exhibiting at Alfred Stieglitz's gallery 291 in 1916.
Anita Pollitzer showed some of O'Keeffe's charcoal drawings to Stieglitz, who exhibited them at his New York gallery without first obtaining O'Keeffe's approval. Stieglitz recognized the drawings as forceful examples of modern abstraction and included them in a group exhibition.
The event marked O'Keeffe's emergence into the New York art world. She was then teaching art in Texas and had been developing a personal language based on simplified lines, shapes, and tonal contrasts rather than conventional representation.
O'Keeffe initially objected to the unauthorized display, but the exhibition began a long professional relationship with Stieglitz. The date is sometimes confused with 1917, when her work received a larger solo presentation at 291.