Georgia O'Keeffe's 1915 Charcoal Drawings are often cited as among the first purely abstract works made in the United States.
The series emerged after O'Keeffe rejected much of the academic art training she had received and began experimenting with line, shape, and rhythm. Rather than depicting a recognizable object, the drawings use simplified black forms arranged across white paper.
She sent some of these drawings to her friend Anita Pollitzer, who showed them to Alfred Stieglitz. Stieglitz exhibited them in 1916, giving O'Keeffe an important early breakthrough in New York's modern-art circles.
The drawings are sometimes described as a single series, although individual works have separate titles and collection histories. They should not be confused with O'Keeffe's later color abstractions or with the flower paintings for which she became more widely known.