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Vik Muniz — White Flag, after Jasper Johns (Pictures of Magazines 2)
Vik Muniz — White Flag, after Jasper Johns (Pictures of Magazines 2)
Vik Muniz — White Flag, after Jasper Johns (Pictures of Magazines 2)
Vik Muniz

White Flag, after Jasper Johns (Pictures of Magazines 2)

In this large-scale work from his celebrated "Pictures of Magazines 2" series, Vik Muniz transforms Jasper Johns's iconic White Flag into an elaborate act of material reinvention. Rather than reproducing Johns's encaustic original through conventional photographic or printmaking means, Muniz reconstructed the composition entirely from carefully arranged fragments of magazine imagery, then photographed the assembled surface to produce a digital chromogenic print measuring 40 by 59 inches. The result holds its own as both homage and interrogation, inviting the viewer to oscillate between recognition of the source and fascination with the dense, collaged substrate that gives it form. The series builds on Muniz's longstanding investigation into representation, illusion, and the materiality of images. Working from art magazines, fashion publications, and commercial print ephemera, he constructed each picture from hundreds of clipped fragments chosen for their color, texture, and tonal value, orchestrating them into compositions that read as coherent wholes only from a distance. Up close, the illusion dissolves into a mosaic of recognizable cultural detritus, and that tension between unity and fragmentation is central to the work's meaning. Choosing Johns as a subject deepens the conceptual layering considerably, since Johns himself was preoccupied throughout his career with the relationship between a sign and the thing it represents, between a painted flag and an actual flag. Muniz extends that inquiry by introducing yet another remove, asking what it means to reconstruct an image of a flag made of paint by using images of images. Printed in an edition of six, this fourth-edition example comes from the distinguished Martin and Lynn Halbfinger Collection, lending it a notable provenance. The work sits comfortably within the market for Muniz's most sought-after series and appeals equally to collectors focused on contemporary photography, conceptual art, and works that engage directly with the canon of postwar American painting.

🔨 Auction Lot

Photographs

June 10, 2026

Estimate: $50,000 to $60,000

Lot 55

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About this work

Vik Muniz, White Flag, after Jasper Johns (Pictures of Magazines 2)

In this large-scale work from his celebrated "Pictures of Magazines 2" series, Vik Muniz transforms Jasper Johns's iconic White Flag into an elaborate act of material reinvention. Rather than reproducing Johns's encaustic original through conventional photographic or printmaking means, Muniz reconstructed the composition entirely from carefully arranged fragments of magazine imagery, then photographed the assembled surface to produce a digital chromogenic print measuring 40 by 59 inches. The result holds its own as both homage and interrogation, inviting the viewer to oscillate between recognition of the source and fascination with the dense, collaged substrate that gives it form. The series builds on Muniz's longstanding investigation into representation, illusion, and the materiality of images. Working from art magazines, fashion publications, and commercial print ephemera, he constructed each picture from hundreds of clipped fragments chosen for their color, texture, and tonal value, orchestrating them into compositions that read as coherent wholes only from a distance. Up close, the illusion dissolves into a mosaic of recognizable cultural detritus, and that tension between unity and fragmentation is central to the work's meaning. Choosing Johns as a subject deepens the conceptual layering considerably, since Johns himself was preoccupied throughout his career with the relationship between a sign and the thing it represents, between a painted flag and an actual flag. Muniz extends that inquiry by introducing yet another remove, asking what it means to reconstruct an image of a flag made of paint by using images of images. Printed in an edition of six, this fourth-edition example comes from the distinguished Martin and Lynn Halbfinger Collection, lending it a notable provenance. The work sits comfortably within the market for Muniz's most sought-after series and appeals equally to collectors focused on contemporary photography, conceptual art, and works that engage directly with the canon of postwar American painting.

Seen at
Doyle, New York, United States

Related themes

Illusion, Photography, Flags, Color Photography, Conceptual, Identity, Magazine Collage, Brazilian Artist, Mixed Media, Postmodern, Collage, Appropriation Art, Representation, Pop Art, Chromogenic Print, Large Format, 21st Century, Patriotic Symbols, Homage, After The Masters, Memory, Contemporary

More works by Vik Muniz

Collected by

Sarah Greenspan, Paul McNally , Alex Capecelatro, Steve Trudeau , Melissa Avery