Black Iris is Georgia O'Keeffe's 1926 painting titled for a flower's dark central structure.
The painting presents an enlarged iris blossom in closely observed yet highly simplified form. O'Keeffe magnified flowers so dramatically that viewers could focus on folds, curves, and tonal transitions that are easy to overlook at ordinary scale. The dark interior of the iris gives the work its memorable title and central visual effect.
O'Keeffe strongly resisted the idea that her flower paintings should be reduced to a single symbolic interpretation. She emphasized looking closely at nature and suggested that people often failed to notice flowers because they were small. Enlarging them was therefore both an artistic strategy and a challenge to hurried seeing.
Black Iris is often discussed alongside her other flower paintings, including Red Canna. It is not the same work as Red Canna, and its title identifies the flower and color rather than a New Mexico location.