The Many Flags of Jasper Johns

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

In 1954, a young man of 24, familiar of the New York avant-gardes and close to Rauschenberg, decides to start his career with a bang. His name is Jasper Johns.

The subject of his first painting is the US flag, copied on a canvas in full frame with no border. The artist resolutely ignores the abstraction. He does not use the object, so his art is not a ready made. This painting shows an object that everyone can recognize, with a technique that the next generation would have described as hyperrealistic.

Since then, Johns has provided many variants of his original idea. In 1973, he produced a painting showing two similar flags, side by side vertically, identical except that one is painted in oil and the other in encaustic. This large size canvas, 133 x 176 cm, was sold $ 7.15 million including charges by Christie's in May 1999.

In 1973 also, he edited to 72 copies (including 7 artist's proofs) an engraving on the same theme, 70 x 89 cm, which is now considered one of the finest achievements of his printed work.

Coincidence: the serial number 36 is on sale at Christie's on October 28 and number 60 the next day October 29 at Sotheby's. The two copies will be auctioned in New York, with the same estimate: 350 K$.

The image of Christie's is shared by AuctionPublicity. We note with amusement that, against the artist intention, the flags are represented horizontally. I leave you to control the number of stars and stripes.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

I expected no surprises. Here is one, and it is bad: Christie's did not find a buyer for their copy.

This edition had perhaps been too often seen on the market in recent years. Wait for the answer in a few hours at Sotheby's.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

Here is now the answer from Sotheby's: K $ 386 including premium.

This result close to the lower estimate is reassuring over my fear of market saturation. The most likely hypothesis is that the lot unsold at Christie's had a reserve price a little higher.