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White Flag

Jasper Johns American
1955
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 920
During the 1950s and 1960s Johns frequently appropriated well-known images such as targets, maps, and flags—in his words, "things the mind already knows." White Flag is part of Johns’s famous flag series, which he began in 1954. In this rendering, he drains this iconic subject of its characteristic red, white, and blue coloration, leaving it to loom, ghostlike. The painting’s bleached appearance and composite, layered form make the familiar image strange. By challenging our understanding of what constitutes a national symbol and complicating our relationship to this highly charged American image, it speaks powerfully, if ambiguously, to the issue of national identity.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: White Flag
  • Artist: Jasper Johns (American, born Augusta, Georgia, 1930)
  • Date: 1955
  • Medium: Encaustic, oil, newsprint, and charcoal on canvas
  • Dimensions: 78 5/16 in. × 10 ft. 3/4 in. (198.9 × 306.7 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace, Reba and Dave Williams, Stephen and Nan Swid, Roy R. and Marie S. Neuberger Foundation Inc., Louis and Bessie Adler Foundation Inc., Paula Cussi, Maria-Gaetana Matisse, The Barnett Newman Foundation, Jane and Robert Carroll, Eliot and Wilson Nolen, Mr. and Mrs. Derald H. Ruttenberg, Ruth and Seymour Klein Foundation Inc., Andrew N. Schiff, The Cowles Charitable Trust, The Merrill G. and Emita E. Hastings Foundation, John J. Roche, Molly and Walter Bareiss, Linda and Morton Janklow, Aaron I. Fleischman, and Linford L. Lougheed Gifts, and gifts from friends of the Museum; Kathryn E. Hurd, Denise and Andrew Saul, George A. Hearn, Arthur Hoppock Hearn, Joseph H. Hazen Foundation Purchase, and Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon B. Polsky Funds; Mayer Fund; Florene M. Schoenborn Bequest; Gifts of Professor and Mrs. Zevi Scharfstein and Himan Brown, and other gifts, bequests, and funds from various donors, by exchange, 1998
  • Object Number: 1998.329
  • Rights and Reproduction: Art ©Jasper Johns/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

Audio

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2020. Modern & Contemporary Art: White Flag

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