The 1916 series of charcoal drawings that helped launch Georgia O'Keeffe's abstract career was called Specials.
O'Keeffe created the charcoal drawings while teaching in South Carolina and Virginia. They reduced landscapes and natural forms to sweeping lines, curves, and tonal contrasts, moving beyond the conventional realism expected in much academic art.
She sent some of these drawings to Anita Pollitzer, who showed them to Alfred Stieglitz. Stieglitz exhibited them at his New York gallery 291 in 1916, making O'Keeffe one of the first American women artists he promoted in that setting.
The series is sometimes discussed alongside her later abstractions, but “Specials” specifically identifies the 1916 group. These drawings established ideas that would continue through her flower paintings, landscapes, and architectural studies.