One of the pieces I found the most interesting during my trip and tour of the Walker Art Center had to be the piece titled "Flags". The brilliant piece was created by an artist named Jasper Johns in 1968. The piece of art was created during the Op Art Period. "Flags" was composed of a color lithograph with stamps, five stones, and an aluminum plate on paper.
I feel that if people were to see this piece in a museum or hadn't had any explanation to it, I believe they would just walk past it without thinking again about it. They would probably think it was just another piece of art hanging on the wall with no meaning to it at all. That's exactly what I like most about "Flags", it basically creates an optical illusion before your eyes, and I'm a fan of optical illusions.
In the piece there are two flags. The top flag is an Image of the American flag but not in the American colors. The flag is painted in orange, black, and green. The second flag underneath is just an aluminum plate. The first flag also has a white dot in the center. The clever and interesting thing about the flag being painted in the "incorrect" colors is that when you stare at the white dot for 30 seconds then quickly look away at the colorless aluminum flag, you'll see the aluminum flag in red, white, and blue for a few seconds. After a few seconds the colors go away. The American colors appear more clearly if you look at a white wall. This all has to do with the retina in our eyes shifting from secondary/ neutral colors to complementary colors.
I think that Jasper Johns was trying to say that everything is not what it seems. Or even that America and the world is not what it seems to be at all. "Flags" is a favorite of mine because it is highly unique.
This is a good description of the piece and I like that you have interpreted what could seem lie just a pleasant optical illusion as actually trying to say something about the illusion of America. I imagine you could take that interpretation even further - does it mean anything that the "real" America fades away? That you have to look at the opposite of the real American flag in order to see the real colors? Does this suggest we are defined by what we are not? Or that we have to look away from an idealized version of America to see it for real?
ReplyDelete