Georgia O'Keeffe’s first widely exhibited series of abstract drawings was titled Specials.
O'Keeffe created the series in 1915 while teaching art in South Carolina. The drawings used charcoal to explore lines, curves, and shapes without directly depicting recognizable objects. They marked a decisive break from the representational exercises expected in much of her academic training.
Her friend Anita Pollitzer showed the drawings to Alfred Stieglitz in New York. Stieglitz exhibited them at his gallery 291 in 1916, making O'Keeffe one of the first American artists to receive a solo presentation of abstract work there.
Specials is sometimes confused with Music, a later title associated with her abstract paintings. O'Keeffe eventually returned to recognizable subjects, but the experimental drawings established the visual language that underpinned her modernist career.