Georgia O'Keeffe's 1916 series named Specials consists of abstract works built from dark lines and shapes on white paper.
O'Keeffe made the Specials while teaching in Canyon, Texas, and produced them primarily in charcoal. The drawings reduce landscape and other visual experience to energetic lines, curves, and angular forms. Alfred Stieglitz exhibited some of these works at his New York gallery in 1916.
The series helped establish O'Keeffe as an important early American abstractionist. At the time, her nearly nonrepresentational drawings were unusual in the United States, and Stieglitz initially displayed them without meeting her in person.
Specials is easy to confuse with titles such as Music or Abstractions, which are also associated with O'Keeffe's early work. The series title requested here is the distinctive name assigned to the 1916 charcoal drawings.