Two Flags (black)

1970–2

In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Jasper Johns born 1930
Medium: Lithograph on paper
Dimensions: Image: 627 x 495 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Purchased 1980
Reference: P07398

Catalogue entry

P07398 TWO FLAGS (BLACK) 1970–2

Inscribed ‘J Johns 70–72’ bottom right and ‘11/40’
Lithograph, printed and published by Universal Limited Art Editions, New York, 24 5/8×19 1/2 (62.7×49.5)
Purchased from Universal Limited Art Editions (Grant-in-Aid) 1980
Lit: Richard S. Field Jasper Johns Prints 1970– 77, Middletown, Connecticut 1978, no.165

For this print, Johns reworked two stones previously used for ‘Two Flags (gray)’ (op.cit., no.164), scratching into their surfaces and adding more marks with tusche. Field notes that this print resembles a painting (now lost), ‘Two Flags’ 1959, in which the flags are placed horizontally one above the other. In ‘(gray)’ they are vertical side by side and appear as drawn because they are printed offset: in ‘(black)’ they were printed direct and thus reversed from the way they were drawn.

Published in:
The Tate Gallery 1980-82: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London 1984