Two Flags

Jasper Johns

Contemporary Art

Jasper Johns first incorporated the image of the U.S. flag into his work in 1954, using layers of wax-based encaustic, paint, and newspaper to embed the country’s signature stars and stripes into the time and space of current events. The artist returned to this motif repeatedly throughout the following decades. In this series of prints that doubles, rotates, and obscures the flag in a reduced and brooding palette, Johns creates a conflicted icon of Americanism and questions the symbolism of a united national body.

ARTIST Jasper Johns, American, born 1930

MEDIUM Lithograph

DATES 1980

DIMENSIONS Sheet: 47 5/8 × 36 1/16 in. (121 × 91.6 cm) image: 39 1/2 × 29 7/8 in. (100.3 × 75.9 cm)

INSCRIPTIONS "for Leo"

COLLECTIONS Contemporary Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 2019.46.5

CREDIT LINE Gift of Barbara Bertozzi Castelli

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

EDITION AP 7/8, Ed. 45; AP8

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Two Flags

Jasper Johns

Contemporary Art

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