Alfred Stieglitz first exhibited Georgia O'Keeffe's charcoal abstractions in 1916. He showed them at his New York gallery, 291, after receiving the drawings through Anita Pollitzer.
The charcoal works were made while O'Keeffe was developing a personal language that moved beyond conventional academic representation. Their sweeping lines and abstract forms helped establish her as an important new voice in American art, even before her well-known flower paintings.
O'Keeffe did not initially authorize Stieglitz to exhibit the drawings. The episode illustrates both his enthusiasm for her work and the complicated power dynamics surrounding her early public career. Their relationship later became professional, romantic, and marital.
Stieglitz is sometimes described only as O'Keeffe's husband, but he was also a central figure in American photography and modern-art exhibition. His galleries and publications helped connect American artists with European developments, while O'Keeffe's subsequent career increasingly rested on her own artistic decisions.