Georgia O'Keeffe made the abstract charcoal drawings that launched her New York career in 1915.
These drawings marked a decisive break from the conventional art exercises she had been taught. Rather than copying objects or following academic models, O'Keeffe used lines, curves, and tonal contrasts to explore feeling and visual rhythm.
She sent some of the drawings to her friend Anita Pollitzer, who showed them to Alfred Stieglitz in New York. Stieglitz exhibited them at his gallery in 1916. The presentation made O'Keeffe one of the first American artists to work in a wholly abstract manner.
O'Keeffe later said the drawings were made while she was teaching in South Carolina and Texas. The year 1915 is sometimes confused with 1916, the year Stieglitz first exhibited them. The drawings came first; the New York gallery debut followed the next year.