Jasper Johns, Tiny Three Flags

Jasper Johns, Three Flags, 2000, 11 x 7 1/2 in., acrylic and graphite on four sheets of plastic, collection the artist, on view at Craig Starr Can’t you just imagine making this? Or rather, Jasper Johns making this? In 2000, when he was seventy, he sat down with three flag-shaped sheets of plastic, a pencil, and a ruler, and painted this tiny version of Three Flags, which he affixed to another sheet of plastic. His signature is like filigree. He’s made stacked Three Flags works on paper [sic] before. What prompted this, I wonder? He’s kept it, as one would, obviously. Can you imagine doing anything else with this but keep it? I’m trying to remember where I read that the parts of the Three Flags covered by flags are actually painted a monochrome grey. Is that from the CR? Emily Tremaine’s biography? I’ll work on that. Meanwhile, who is going to find out what’s under these flags on plastic? The plastic should be easier than the canvases to investigate non-invasively. But who’s going to…