An American icon: Sotheby's to offer Jasper Johns Flag at its Contemporary Art Evening sale

NEW YORK, NY.- On 11 November 2014 Sotheby’s will present Jasper John’s Flag, one of the most recognizable works of American art which will feature in the Contemporary Art Evening sale. This late example was acquired from the artist in 1983, the year it was made, and has remained in the same private collection since. The Flags are executed in encaustic, a painstaking process where pigment is mixed with hot wax, and meticulously applied in a laborious process. Estimated to fetch between $15 and $20 million, Flag went on view on Monday 22 September at Sotheby’s Los Angeles galleries before being exhibited in Hong Kong, London, and New York.

Anthony Grant, Sotheby’s Vice Chairman, Americas commented: “I have known this painting for 30 years, yet even now I am struck anew by its power. Jasper’s Flag paintings recast this most potent of symbols in unprecedented terms of abstracted composition. Already virtually universally recognized and revered, Jasper Johns has made our flag one of the keynotes of Twentieth Century art history .”

John’s Flags are in the collections of many of the most distinguished American institutions including the Museum Of Modern Art, New York, The Metropolitan Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Kunstmuseum Basel, Museum Ludwig in Cologne, and the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig in Vienna. The present example has been on loan most recently at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (from 2007 to 2014) and before that the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (2002-2007) and Yale University Art Gallery (1999-2002).

Exhibition Dates and Details

3 -5 October, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

11 – 18 October, 34-35 New Bond Street, London W1A 2AA UK