Georgia O'Keeffe's first widely recognized abstract drawing series was called Specials.
She made the series in 1915 while teaching in South Carolina and Virginia. The charcoal drawings reduced landscapes and natural forms to lines, curves, and tonal shapes rather than depicting recognizable objects. They are often discussed as some of the earliest wholly abstract works produced by an American artist.
O'Keeffe sent the drawings to her friend Anita Pollitzer, who showed them to Alfred Stieglitz. Stieglitz exhibited a selection at 291 in 1916. Although O'Keeffe later became famous for flowers, bones, and Southwestern landscapes, the Specials drawings are essential for understanding how she developed a personal language of abstraction before moving to New York.