Black Iris is Georgia O'Keeffe's 1926 painting of a dramatically enlarged dark iris flower.
O'Keeffe made many flower paintings during the 1920s, using close-up views and large scale to direct attention toward color, contour, and the flower’s central structure. Black Iris is among the works that established her reputation for turning botanical subjects into commanding modernist compositions.
The painting is sometimes referred to as Black Iris III because O'Keeffe created related versions and studies of black iris subjects. That numbering can create confusion when a question asks for the general title of the 1926 work.
O'Keeffe strongly objected to critics who automatically interpreted her flowers as sexual symbols. She explained that flowers are small and people often overlook them, so she enlarged them to make viewers slow down and look. The painting therefore belongs both to her flower series and to a wider debate about interpreting her art.