Georgia O'Keeffe used charcoal for the abstract drawings first exhibited at 291 in 1916. The series was a major early breakthrough because it presented nonrepresentational forms at a time when abstract art was still unfamiliar to many American viewers.
The drawings came from O'Keeffe's experiments with line, shape, and rhythm rather than from direct depictions of recognizable objects. Alfred Stieglitz saw the works and exhibited them at his New York gallery without initially knowing the artist's identity.
Their display helped establish O'Keeffe as an important emerging modernist. She later worked in oil, watercolor, pastel, and other media, but the charcoal drawings remain especially significant in accounts of her artistic development.
The works are sometimes described generally as “abstract drawings,” which can obscure their material. Charcoal is the specific medium associated with the 1916 group shown at 291.