![]() ![]() Johns used encaustic, which is a wax-based substance. If we look at Johns' iconic "Three Flags," we encounter a representation of "flag as subjective experience" versus just "flag as flag." One of the most intriguing aspects of this particular piece is what it was made of. Cole's iteration featuring toy soldiers melted down and painted over in red, white and blue is intended to evoke in an "emotional, visceral way - the way the world is now." Haring's trademark faceless figures tend to signify the common humanness of people in this country while, at the same time, suggesting that our differences are what gives the flag any sort of meaning. ![]() Bottom " Memorial Flag (Toy Soldiers)," (2019) by Dave Cole Top:: "American Music Festival - New York City Ballet" (1988) by Keith Haring (). David Cole and Keith Haring, for instance, also created highly memorable art using the flag as a prompt: The flag has been the subject of many artists' work Johns is not unique in that endeavor, though he is perhaps among the most famous, if not most enigmatic, depicters of Old Glory. Gazing through the lens of the moment's political and social climate and trying to understand Johns' "flags" accordingly, means contextualizing the art. This doesn't really seem a coincidence, as art, culture and current events all seem to have a rather curious way of converging on provocatively interpretable planes. Two of the artist's most iconic works, "Flag" and "Three Flags," have been given the lion's share of the press for the "Mind/Mirror" exhibition. ![]() So what exactly is Jasper Johns' "private experience" of the public symbol that is the American flag? This is of course a question the artist has never really answered, but one nevertheless that a number of his paintings with their recurring stars-and-stripes motif poses. His party-line response when asked about his fascination with the flag is to say that the imagery comes from "things the mind already knows." A New York Times piece on his 2018 retrospective at the Broad Museum in Los Angeles describes Johns' style as one that "claim public symbols for the realm of inwardness and private experience." Why the flag? Johns is notoriously tight-lipped when it comes to the interpretation of his work. Among Johns' favorite subjects, the American flag. Some suggest that his younger work pays homage to this school while also nodding to the emergent pop art scene - he pulls off a curious, thought-provoking blend of the quotidian and authentic gestural self-expression. Johns' early artistic rise coincided with the waning of the "ab ex" movement. Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko were some of the more notable artists creating "cathedrals … out of their own feelings." Johns, one could argue, took this concept and turned it on its head with his own unique style. A Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, the painter came of age around the time abstract expressionism had taken hold in the New York art world. Both the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Philadelphia Museum of Art have collaborated to present the 91-year-old artist's most comprehensive exhibit yet, "Mind/Mirror." Jasper Johns' work will be on display in two of the country's most famous art museums concurrently, through Feb. Marlowe is a freelance writer, essayist, former English professor and LGBTQ+ activist who splits her time between Rochester, NY and Baltimore, MD. ![]()
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