Flag

Jasper Johns · 1954-55 (dated on reverse 1954)

This is Flag, made between nineteen fifty-four and nineteen fifty-five in encaustic — pigment suspended in hot wax — over collaged newspaper, on three panels. Come close and you can read fragments of the newsprint through the surface. Johns said the idea came to him in a dream.

Medium Encaustic, oil, and collage on fabric mounted on plywood, three panels · Dimensions 42 1/4 x 60 5/8" (107.3 x 153.8 cm) · Credit Gift of Philip Johnson in honor of Alfred H. Barr, Jr.

Hanging beside it in Gallery 408: Merz Picture 32 A. The Cherry Picture (Merzbild 32 A. Das Kirschbild), Portrait of Alfred Stieglitz

Works like this one elsewhere in the museum: Untitled, Round Bar of Wood, American Girl. Costume design for the ballet H.P. (Horsepower), First Requiem, Untitled