Georgia O'Keeffe's 1916 Specials series is known for bold charcoal abstractions.
O'Keeffe created a group of abstract charcoal drawings in 1915 and 1916 that became known as the Specials. The works used sweeping lines, geometric forms, and strong contrasts rather than depicting recognizable objects in a conventional way. They were among the earliest fully abstract works produced by an American woman artist.
She sent some of these drawings to her friend Anita Pollitzer, who showed them to Alfred Stieglitz in New York. Stieglitz exhibited them at 291 in 1916, giving O'Keeffe an important early public presentation.
The series is sometimes confused with O'Keeffe's later abstract paintings or with the phrase “early abstractions,” which describes a broader group rather than the specific series title. Her abstractions were central to her early reputation, even though she later became more widely known for flowers, bones, landscapes, and architectural forms.