In the mid-1950s, Jasper Johns began to explore the boundaries between abstraction and representation through the use of familiar symbols. He described his subjects as “things the mind already knows.” In this work, he shifts the visual emphasis from the emblematic significance of the American flag to the geometry of its pattern and the variegated surface of the picture. Johns created the sensuous texture of Three Flags with encaustic paint, a... (http://arteverywhereus.org/Art-Gallery/id/117)