Recently, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City mounted an intimate, yet extensive, exhibition of works by Jasper Johns. Curated by Deborah Wye and installed in the second-floor Department of Prints and Illustrated Books, Focus: Jasper Johns  (December 5, 2008 through February 16, 2009) looked at the ways Johns has mined, investigated and re-investigated certain motifs-flags, targets, crosshatching-in various mediums over  the course of his long career. "Inventive reengagement" is the phrase the curator used. I like that.

Flag, 1954-55; encaustic, oil and collage on fabric mounted on plywood; three panels

 While the focus was on printmaking, occasioned by the acquisition of a series of works on paper, the exhibition included two iconic paintings from early in Johns's  career: Flag and Target with Four Faces,  as well as more recent works: the Summer panel from his Eighties opus, Four Seasons, and a newer painting from his Catenary series. These four paintings accompanied many prints with the same visual themes.  Because these works are all in the museum's collection, photography was allowed.

I'll show more images in my talk, "Wax in the Galleries" at the Montserrat Encaustic Conference  in June, so here I'm going to focus on Flag.  Painted in 1954-1955, it is one of the images that Johns famously described as "things the mind already knows."  If you've seen it once, you've see it dozens of times. But have you really seen it?  What you may not be able to discern from a reproduction is that it is painted in three sections: the blue field, the striped field adjacent to it, and the wide bottom panel that spans the width of the work (Detail 1). The tripartite construction makes perfect sense., not only because of the way the work divides so perfectly, but because early in his career Johns was very likely learning to handle the medium. Even big painters started small.

The other thing you might not realize is that the paint is applied not directly to the canvas but to newsprint, which is affixed to canvas and secured over a panel, which you can see clearly when the work is viewed up close (Detail 2).

Detail 1: The meeting of the three panels that comprise Flag.

Detail 2: This little detail is particularly rich in surface-brushstrokes, drips and drops, as well as two distinct textures: smooth, presumably from an iron, and a more immediate stroke that retains the impression of the brush as it was swiped along the surface

On the blue field, the newsprint, now stiff and yellowed, folds over the side, with brushstrokes of blue paint visible (Detail 3). The panels themselves are supported exactly the way we all made them in art school: not mitered, but with the vertical supports flush up againt the horizontals. You can see that in the closeup where the two striped panels meet (Detail 4).

    Detail 3                       

Detail 4

The painting itself, framed and under glass, looks to be in almost perfect condition, a testament in part to the materials but also, I'm guessing, to the expert conservation of the work. You get a better sense of scale of Flag, about 48 x 60 inches, and of the exhibition itself in the image below:

In Focus: Jasper Johns at MoMa recently:  Flag is, on the far wall. Target with Four Faces is in the foreground.

If you are visiting MoMA, ask where you can see these paintings. They are typically on display in the permanent collection.

-- Joanne Mattera