Located in the Museum of Modern Art, NY.
One of the definitive works of not only pop art but also all of modern, contemporary art. Is Johns' work a flag, or is it a painting of a flag? To create this work, Johns used a forgotten technique: encaustic, a way of blending pigment into hot wax. Johns took pieces of newspaper and dipped them in wax of the appropriate color and applied them to fabric. The results of using this technique were that making the work was a very long and laborious project, as hand-sewing a flag would be, and also that ripples and ridges randomly and uncontrollably formed on the surface of the flag due to the use of wax. After Johns,"the emotionally loaded gestures of his predecessors [Abstract Expressionists such as de Kooning and Pollock] suddenly began to look grandiose and hollow to an increasing number of viewers" (Crow 18). In other words, through wax Johns created the effect of instant Abstract Expressionism, except in images political connotations so heavy that the MoMA at first rejected it's purchase it in fear of protest (Crow 19).
The Small Figure 3 (1960)
Located in the Yale University Art Gallery.