The White Flag

Mediums: encaustic, oil, newsprint, charcoal, canvas.
Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the USA.

After his first painting with the image of the American flag, which became very popular, Jasper Johns created a few more paintings on this theme. The canvas “Three flags” (1958) is at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The most interesting among them is the painting “The White Flag”, as it was made in an unusual for the artist manner using mostly white and barely distinguishable mid-tones. Working on this large canvas, the artist divided it into three parts: an element with stars, upper stripes, and lower stripes of the flag. To create the painting, Johns used molten beeswax, in which he immersed pieces of paper and applied them to a surface soaked with the same wax. From above, the artist painted the surface with white oil paint, creating bright shimmering glare on it.