Flowers were the subject Georgia O'Keeffe enlarged dramatically in many of her best-known paintings.
Beginning in the 1920s, O'Keeffe created close-up views of flowers that filled the canvas with petals, folds, and intense color. Works such as Oriental Poppies and Black Iris made ordinary botanical subjects appear monumental. She said that people often overlooked flowers because they were small, so she painted them large enough to be noticed.
These paintings are frequently described as abstract, although O'Keeffe generally retained recognizable natural forms. Critics and viewers sometimes interpreted the flowers as symbolic or sexual images, but O'Keeffe rejected overly narrow explanations of her work.
Flowers were only one part of her career. She also painted urban architecture, animal bones, desert landscapes, clouds, shells, and trees. Her repeated use of natural subjects helped make her a central figure in American modernism while preserving a direct connection to observation.