Black Iris is a 1926 Georgia O'Keeffe painting held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The painting enlarges an iris blossom so that its dark central folds fill much of the composition. O'Keeffe repeatedly used close-up views of flowers, inviting viewers to notice their shapes, curves, and tonal changes at an unusually intimate scale.
Black Iris is often discussed alongside her other flower paintings, including Black Iris III. Those works are related but are not the same picture. The Metropolitan Museum’s title is Black Iris, while other versions and similarly named iris paintings belong to different collections.
O'Keeffe rejected the idea that her flower paintings should be reduced to symbolic interpretations. She emphasized that magnifying a flower could help people actually see it, since ordinary viewers might otherwise overlook its visual structure.