In January 1916, when O'Keeffe was an unknown art teacher living in South Carolina, a friend of the young artist’s brought a group of her abstract drawings to the influential editor, photographer, and gallerist Alfred Stieglitz. Later that year, without O'Keeffe's knowledge, Stieglitz decided to exhibit the drawings at his New York gallery 291, promoting both their homegrown abstraction and their maker’s gender: "291 had never before seen a woman express herself so frankly on paper." When O’Keeffe found out, she was furious and demanded they be taken down, but Stieglitz refused. The exhibition launched her career.

Gallery label from

Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925, December 23, 2012–April 15, 2013.

Medium Charcoal on paper
Dimensions 24 × 19" (61 × 48.3 cm)
Credit Gift of The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation
Object number 200.1995
Department Drawings and Prints

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Georgia O'Keeffe

Georgia O'Keeffe

American, 1887–1986 13 works online

In 1959, the artist Georgia O’Keeffe boarded an airplane in the United States and proceeded to travel for several months.

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