Georgia O'Keeffe used charcoal for her 1915 Series 1 abstractions.
The drawings belong to a breakthrough group made while O'Keeffe was teaching in South Carolina. She reduced natural forms to bold lines, curves, and areas of dark and light, producing abstract compositions without directly copying recognizable objects. The series became a crucial early statement of her artistic independence.
O'Keeffe sent some of these drawings to Anita Pollitzer, who showed them to Alfred Stieglitz in New York. Stieglitz exhibited them at his gallery in 1916, giving O'Keeffe an important connection to the American modernist art world.
Her later work used oil paint, watercolor, pastel, and other media, so the material can be confused across different periods. Series 1 is specifically associated with charcoal on paper. The drawings are significant because they mark one of the earliest sustained examples of abstraction by an American artist.