Georgia O'Keeffe first exhibited her abstract drawings at Alfred Stieglitz's New York gallery 291 in 1916. The presentation marked a major turning point because it introduced her experimental work to an influential modern-art audience.
The drawings had been sent to Stieglitz by Anita Pollitzer, O'Keeffe's friend and former classmate. Stieglitz was impressed by their originality and displayed them at 291 without initially meeting O'Keeffe. He later became her husband and one of the most important promoters of her career.
O'Keeffe's 1916 drawings used charcoal, line, and empty space to suggest movement and emotion without depicting recognizable objects. Their appearance at 291 helped establish her as an important emerging American modernist. The event is sometimes confused with her later flower paintings or with the opening of her New Mexico period, which came years afterward.