Georgia O’Keeffe’s first solo exhibition at New York’s 291 gallery opened in 1917.
The exhibition was organized by photographer and gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz, who had first seen O’Keeffe’s abstract charcoal drawings through photographs sent by her friend Anita Pollitzer. Stieglitz exhibited the drawings at his avant-garde gallery, known as 291 after its address on Fifth Avenue.
The 1917 show was important because it introduced O’Keeffe to New York’s modern-art circle and marked the beginning of her long professional relationship with Stieglitz. He later represented her work and organized additional exhibitions, while also making many portraits of her.
This date is distinct from 1915, when O’Keeffe made the charcoal abstractions that first came to Stieglitz’s attention. It is also separate from 1924, the year she married him. The exhibition therefore belongs to the earlier stage of her career, before her fame as a flower painter became firmly established.