Jasper Johns
American, b. 1930
FLAGS 1965
oil on canvas

By painting with gestural brush strokes, Johns heightens our awareness of the flag's abstract design. Without denying our memory of its meaning, he reveals the flag to be as flat as the picture plane, and equally artful in its form and function.

To underscore this distinction between memory and reality, Johns made this painting a literal exercise in visual perception. Take a closer look at the green, orange, and black flag at the top of the painting. Focus your gaze on the white dot in the center of this flag. Keep staring at the dot for about one full minute. Then, shut your eyes for just a moment, open them, and look immediately at the black dot at the center of the gray flag at the bottom of the painting. Almost magically, a red-white-and-blue flag will faintly appear. If it doesn't work the first time, try again and concentrate your gaze a little harder.

This visual illusion occurs because when we stare at a color or group of colors, we tire the receptors in our eyes that recognize those colors. So when we first look away, our tired eyes will briefly see the opposite of those colors by using our other, fresher visual receptors. In this way, Johns shows us that a flag is not always a flag -- it just depends on how you look at it.

Jasper Johns explains his choice of subject matter
"In the earlier paintings, I looked for subject matter that was recognizable. Letters and numbers, for example. These were things people knew, and did not know, in the sense that everyone had an everyday relationship to numbers and letters, but never had they seen them in the context of a painting. I wanted to make them see something new. I am interested in the idea of sight, in the use of the eye. I am interested in how we see and why we see the way we do."


Courtesy the artist
Copyright Jasper Johns/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY