Georgia O'Keeffe used charcoal for her 1918 series of abstract drawings.
O'Keeffe created a major series of abstract charcoal drawings in 1918. The works used sweeping lines, curves, and areas of open paper to explore visual rhythm rather than depict recognizable objects. They helped establish her reputation as an innovative American modernist.
She sent some of these drawings to her friend Anita Pollitzer, who showed them to Alfred Stieglitz. Stieglitz exhibited them in New York in 1916, before O'Keeffe made the later 1918 series. This chronology is an important distinction: her charcoal abstractions were first shown publicly in 1916, while the especially influential later series dates from 1918.
O'Keeffe eventually moved between abstraction and representation, painting flowers, buildings, bones, and landscapes. Her use of charcoal was not merely preparatory; the drawings were finished works that demonstrated how much expressive power she could obtain from a limited black-and-white medium.