Georgia O’Keeffe used charcoal for the abstract drawings that transformed her career in 1915.
While teaching art in South Carolina, O’Keeffe made a group of radical, nonrepresentational drawings using charcoal on paper. The works reduced forms to lines, curves, and rhythmic shapes rather than depicting recognizable objects. They were among the earliest fully abstract works produced by an American artist.
O’Keeffe sent some of these drawings to her friend Anita Pollitzer, who showed them to Alfred Stieglitz in New York. Stieglitz exhibited them at his gallery in 1916, bringing O’Keeffe wider attention.
The drawings are often associated with watercolor because O’Keeffe had also made important watercolor studies earlier in her career. However, the breakthrough 1915 series is specifically known for its charcoal medium. That distinction matters because the spare black-and-white works announced her move toward abstraction before her later flower and landscape paintings.