In the 1960s and 1970s Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol experimented with screenprint (a form of stenciling), interested in its easy adoption of photographic imagery and the large print runs and layering of saturated colors it enabled. Warhol revolutionized the technique, creating large-edition portfolios using screens prepared with photo-based stencils and varying the ink colors. Sunset, of 1972, a radical example of this concept of color serialization, was produced in an unprecedented 632 unique color variations using just three screens. It is one of Warhol’s most subtle and visually expressive projects. With its acquisition, the Museum’s representation of Warhol’s various printmaking strategies is complete. Johns, in his 1973 tour-de-force screenprint Flags I, took a different approach. Using a remarkable 31 screens, he slowly built up the work through layers of translucent and colored marks. One of the great monuments of printed art in the 20th century, Flags I had been long sought after by the Museum. It adds a key composition to the more than 70 flag-related paintings, drawings, and prints by the artist in MoMA’s collection and, in particular, augments the representation of Johns’s early screenprinting.

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