Georgia O'Keeffe used charcoal for the abstract drawings shown at 291 in 1916.
The series consisted of largely nonrepresentational charcoal drawings made in 1915. They reduced forms to flowing lines, shapes, and rhythmic arrangements rather than depicting recognizable objects in a conventional way. Alfred Stieglitz exhibited them at his New York gallery 291 in April 1916.
These works were important in the development of American modernism because they demonstrated that an artist could create powerful compositions without directly copying visible reality. O'Keeffe later made paintings in oil and watercolor, but the 1916 breakthrough is specifically associated with charcoal on paper.
The drawings should not be confused with her famous flower paintings, which were generally made in oil. Nor should they be read only as botanical studies: their original force came from their abstraction and formal simplicity.