Georgia O'Keeffe's first widely exhibited abstract drawing series from 1915 was titled Specials.
The series consisted of charcoal drawings made while O'Keeffe was teaching in South Carolina. Rather than copying recognizable objects, she used lines, curves, and tonal contrasts to explore forms that could stand independently as abstract compositions.
She sent the drawings to Anita Pollitzer, who showed them to Alfred Stieglitz. Stieglitz exhibited them at his New York gallery, 291, in 1916. Their presentation helped bring O'Keeffe's experimental work to the attention of the American art world.
The series is sometimes described generally as her “abstract drawings,” but Specials is the specific title associated with the 1915 group. O'Keeffe later produced many works with abstract forms, making the series name especially useful for identification.