Georgia O'Keeffe’s 1915 series of charcoal abstractions was titled Specials.
The series marked a decisive turning point in O'Keeffe’s career. Rather than drawing recognizable objects in an academic style, she used lines, shapes, and tonal contrasts to explore visual ideas without directly depicting a subject. She later described these works as her first experiments with pure abstraction.
O'Keeffe sent the charcoal drawings to Anita Pollitzer, a former classmate. Pollitzer showed them to Alfred Stieglitz, who exhibited some at his New York gallery 291 in 1916. Stieglitz’s decision was controversial because the works differed from the representational art many American viewers expected, but the exhibition brought O'Keeffe to the attention of the modernist art world.
The title Specials is sometimes overlooked because discussions of the series focus on its importance rather than its name. O'Keeffe did not remain exclusively abstract: flowers, bones, buildings, and landscapes later became recognizable subjects, often treated with the same emphasis on shape and close-up form.