Georgia O'Keeffe’s 1926 painting Black Iris is also known as Black Iris III.
The work is an enlarged close-up of an iris flower, a subject O'Keeffe repeatedly transformed into monumental modernist compositions. Rather than presenting the entire plant, she crops the flower so its curves, folds, and dark central forms dominate the canvas. This approach made familiar natural forms appear both abstract and intensely magnified.
O'Keeffe often rejected the idea that her flower paintings should be reduced to symbolic or anatomical interpretations. Critics and viewers nevertheless frequently debate whether Black Iris and related works are primarily floral studies, abstract compositions, or both. Black Iris III belongs to a group of iris paintings from the mid-1920s and is distinct from O'Keeffe’s later Red Canna and Oriental Poppies paintings.