Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
ADJUNCT MODULE D: WORLD ART
Preferred Title:
Flags
Image View:
Detail, green and orange flag with white dot at center
Creator:
Jasper Johns (American painter, born 1930)
Location:
repository: Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States)
Location Note:
Jasper Johns: 'Something Resembling Truth' (Exhibition, February 10-May 13, 2018)
Date:
1965 (creation)
Cultural Context:
American
Style Period:
Twentieth century
Work Type 1:
painting (visual work)
Classification:
Paintings
Material:
Oil on canvas with raised canvas
Technique:
oil painting (technique)
Measurements:
6 ft (height) x 4 ft (width)
Subjects:
abstraction; contemporary (1960 to present); afterimage; optical illusion; flag
Description:
In "Flags" Johns takes advantage of the optical illusion of an afterimage. Two rectangles are painted on a gray background. The top one has black stars against an orange background; the stripes are black and green. There's a tiny white dot on one of the green stripes. Below this rectangle is another one, all gray. If you focus your eyes on the dot, you start to see red and blue on the flag that's painted in gray below, because green and red are complementary colors; so are orange and blue. In an afterimage, persistent exposure to a given color causes the retina to become 'tired" of that color. The retina subsequently removes that color. When the color stimulus is removed and the eye is exposed to white light, then the complementary color is perceived for a brief period of time. It produces a second flag that, for all intents and purposes, is not there. (Source: National Public Radio [website]; www.npr.org)
Collection:
Archivision Adjunct Module D: World Art
Identifier:
7A1-JOHNS-SRT-GYF-A0 2
Rights:
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.

Flags