(✎)Design's Critique Assignment

Artist: Jasper Johns

Year: 1958

Type : Encaustic on canvas

Dimensions : (30⅞ in × 45½ in)

Location : Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City

    The Imitationalism of this artwork is... it doesn't look realistic or got photographed it just looks like a normal artwork. This is because the artist didn't create any negative spaces that would give them some contrasts. And also the artist did something that is impossible to have them in the real world like there are two floating flags at the front. But if this artwork looked realistic, the flags would just got overlapped, there would be less shadows around the edges, and there could be some spaces too. So this artwork is impossible to be a realistic artwork because there are no elements or principle of design that support this artwork to be realistic.

    For the Formalism part I found that there are so many repetitions, rhythms, movements, and feelings on this artwork. Example like the flags are creating a proportion by looking at their size from large to small, the position that goes from the back to the front, or the stars on the corner left that creating a pattern or the white and red lines on each flags that are linear to each other. And for the colours and lights that are on the low values. So this is a pretty wonderful job that the artist tried very carefully to create a balance. The shapes that applied to the flags I think they are just squares. The artist made them related to the actual shape of flags. For the two flags at the front on their edges, they seem to create a contrast that produced shadows. And the textures, the artist made the flags look old, dirty, stained. Those textures would create a balance to match the elements that applied to the flags and also they could show the feelings of the design. For the emphasis or the focal point of this artwork.... if we put together all the elements and principles of design it would be for the small flag, which is at the front. Why...? Because it shows us everything on there, different than the other two that only show us the outside part of them. So what I meant is.. the small flag shows us the message from all these element and principles of design that applied there.

    And for the last part which is the Emotionalism. Because of the flags that are looking dirty, stained, old. The colours and lights that are on the low values, the contrast that produced shadows and some lights, the shapes and lines that are strong. So they are actually creating the feelings of this artwork that the artist want us to know something that relates to our countries' history...passion... or it could be the importance to remember our heroes that died and fought from the world wars, for their countries to bring a victory.