MOMA Museum. Museum goers contemplate ":American Flag" by the artist Jasper Johns at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
MOMA Museum. Museum goers contemplate ":American Flag" by the artist Jasper Johns at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. NYC. Johns has said that the idea to paint this first American flag came to him in a dream. Although he began the work using enamel house paint, he soon turned to his variant of the ancient medium of encaustic wherein wax, not oil, binds pigment. He did this because he wanted a medium that dries very quickly yet keeps the brushstrokes distinct. The fast-drying medium enabled him to apply individual strokes with great textural variation, while allowing some of the underlying areas of collage to show through, dimly, enticing the viewer to look closely. As John Cage wrote of Johns' craftsmanship: "Looking closely helps, though the paint is applied so sensually there is the danger of falling in love.”. Using the design of the American flag took care of a great deal for me because I didn't have to design it. So I went on to similar things like the targets - things the mind already knows. That gave me room to work on other levels." There are two ideas here: first, the notion of an image which is seen and not seen, because of its familiarity. And second, the idea of an image which can be precisely measured and put onto canvas - an object identified by its fixed proportions. An accurately reproduced flag is familiar, and therefore "not looked at." But by painting the image in encaustic, with its heavily worked, encrusted surface, Johns' flag image becomes familiar and unfamiliar at the same time, and therefore draws our notice.
Size: 5120px × 3401px
Photo credit: © Sergi Reboredo / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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