American flag focus of exhibition at Crystal Bridges

Jul. 3—BENTONVILLE, Ark. — The U.S. flag and its place in art are the focus of an exhibition this summer at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

It includes a number of well-known pieces that feature the American flag, the most famous being "Rosie the Riveter" by Norman Rockwell.

In all, there are nearly 50 pieces representing more than 20 artists and more than 200 years of painting, printmaking, fiber, photography and mixed media.

"It's good and it's OK that the U.S. flag elicits emotional responses from different people from all walks of life," said Larissa Russell, associate curator. "I think the exhibition embraces that."

'Rosie the Riveter'

Crystal Bridges acquired the Rockwell painting in 2009, before the museum even opened. Rockwell painted it in 1943, during World War II, when women were doing many of the jobs in factories for the war effort. He painted it for the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.

The 52-by-40-inch oil on canvas depicts a woman on lunch break, her riveting gun on her lap as she uses a dog-eared copy of "Mein Kampf" as a footstool. The flag is the backdrop for the image. According to the museum, "Rockwell's character is posed as an homage to Michelangelo's frescoed depiction of the prophet Isaiah from the Sistine Chapel ceiling."

"This exhibition is a good opportunity to see Rosie in a new context," Russell said, explaining that it will be paired next to a sculpture by Vanessa German titled "Artist Considers 21st Century Implications of Psychosis as Public Health Crisis or, Critical/Comedic Analysis into the Pathophysiology of Psychosis," from 2014.

Crystal Bridges has three of German's works, and in this one the figure in the sculpture is part angel, with wings, and part child, riding a skateboard and carrying a doll, balancing a bed with smaller figures on her head. In her left hand is an American flag.

'Flag'

Jasper Johns' "Flag" is another well-known piece. According to the museum, "the flag is the most enduring of Johns' subjects, appearing in more than 90 works throughout his career."

Johns had a dream about an American flag in 1954 and afterward created flag paintings, drawings, prints, mixed-media collages and sculptures, including, nearly three decades later, the Crystal Bridges painting. His flag has 48 stars, as his first flag was created before Alaska and Hawaii became states.

According to the museum, Johns was named for an ancestor famous for rescuing a flag during the Revolutionary War.

Russell said Johns prides himself on being an artist focused on symbols and how those symbols function in society.

'The Slave'

Also in the exhibition will be a work by Leroy Alman from 1994 titled "The Slave."

It depicts a number of scenes carved in wood and painted, including one of armed men marching Black men and women to a "slave ship" flying the American flag. Other scenes show an enslaved person being auctioned, and an enslaved person on a plantation in Georgia titled "Tara."

The latter scenes are under a red eye that Russell said represents the eye of God, but the eye is not watching over the slave ship.

"It's his way of saying there is someone you will be answering to," Russell said.

Others

Other works of art include:

—"Bonfire" by Carla Edwards.

—"Home of the Brave" by Consuelo Jiminez Underwood.

—"People's Meeting" by Charles Keller.

—"Burlesque No. 2" by Max Weber.

—A number of photos by Bruce Davidson.