Georgia O'Keeffe’s 1915 series of nonrepresentational drawings was called Specials.
The Specials were among O'Keeffe’s earliest fully abstract works. Made primarily in charcoal, they used lines, shapes, and tonal contrasts rather than recognizable objects. The series grew from her attempt to express ideas and feelings through visual form instead of copying the visible world. These drawings became a crucial early step in her development as an American modernist.
O'Keeffe sent photographs of some of these drawings to Anita Pollitzer, who showed them to Alfred Stieglitz in New York. Stieglitz exhibited them in 1916, helping introduce O'Keeffe to the American art world. The series is sometimes loosely described as her “charcoal abstractions,” but Specials is the specific name associated with the 1915 group. Her later work often returned to recognizable subjects while retaining an interest in abstraction.