Flags I [artist's proof]

1973

Jasper Johns

Artist, American, born 1930

Hiroshi Kawanishi

Printer, Japanese, active second half 20th century

Kenjiro Nonaka

Printer, Japanese, active second half 20th century

Takeshi Shimada

Printer, Japanese, active second half of 20th century

Simca Print Artists

Publisher

This object’s media is not available for download. Contact us about image usage.

Jasper Johns has almost always selected the raw material of his art from preexisting images, or what he has called “things the mind already knows.” His first flag painting, created in 1954–1955, launched his career. Johns has said that using ready-made designs such as flags, targets, and numerals that are “seen and not looked at, not examined” gave him “room to work on other levels.” As flat objects, flags could be recognizably portrayed on a two-dimensional surface. Here, however, Johns’s doubling of the image and his handling of the medium—with scrapes and scratches, drips, and blotches of green color—make it clear that this is a work of art, not an actual flag.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    color screenprint on J. B. Green wove paper [artist's proof]

  • Credit Line

    Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection

  • Dimensions

    sheet: 69.9 x 90 cm (27 1/2 x 35 7/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1994.82.8

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    ULAE, no. 128 [artist's proof]

  • Copyright

    Published by Jasper Johns and Simca Print Artists, Inc. © Jasper Johns and Simca Print Artists, Inc./Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Robert and Jane Meyerhoff, Phoenix, Maryland; acquired 1994 by the National Gallery of Art

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2016

  • Three Centuries of American Prints: from the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; National Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic; Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, 2016-2017, no. 128.

Bibliography

1978

  • Field, Richard S. Jasper Johns: Prints 1970-1977. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1978, no. 173.

1994

  • Field, Richard S. The Prints of Jasper Johns, 1960-1993: A Catalogue Raisonné. West Islip, New York: Universal Limited Art Editions, 1994, no. 128.

Inscriptions

lower left in graphite: AP 3/7; lower right in graphite: J Johns '73

Markings

embossed lower left: [Simca Press]

Wikidata ID

Q75125997

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