Black Iris is Georgia O'Keeffe's 1926 painting famous for its enlarged black flower form. The work magnifies a flower until its curving petals dominate the composition and become an almost abstract study of shape, color, and tonal contrast.
O'Keeffe made many flower paintings during the 1920s and 1930s. She often enlarged small blossoms so that viewers had to confront their structures rather than glance past them as ordinary decorative details.
Black Iris is often discussed in relation to interpretations that read O'Keeffe’s flowers as sexual imagery. O'Keeffe rejected the idea that critics could reduce the paintings to such a single explanation, emphasizing instead her interest in seeing and presenting flowers closely.
The title identifies the flower and color, but it is not interchangeable with her other iris works. O'Keeffe also painted later iris compositions, including works whose titles specify white, blue, or multiple blooms.