Artist and former Pollock-Krasner Foundation research fellow Timothy Roepe will present a talk entitled "From Old Glory to Pop Icon: The Enduring Popularity of the American Flag in Contemporary Art" at Lawrence Fine Art, East Hampton, NY on July 5th at 5 pm. Roepe will discuss the American flag as it is presented in contemporary art from Jasper Johns up to and including his own work.

"Since Jasper Johns' seminal work, the flag has become the great tabula rasa for artists, a medium for us to reexamine ourselves from time to time," said Lawrence Fine Art Gallery Director Howard Shapiro. Shapiro noted that this year is also the 200th anniversary of the writing of the Star Spangled Banner.

Roepe's talk will discuss the formal issues underlying John's use of the flag as well as its appearance as a Pop symbol.  He will also discuss what lead him to introduce the flag into his own work. He has incorporated flag imagery on and off for the past 20 years.

"I noticed there was an awful lot of advertising that used red, white and blue, like Mobil, Exxon, and several products out there. I thought there was a relation between color theory, advertising and patriotism," he said.

Lawrence Fine Art is located at 37 Newtown Lane (in the passageway), East Hampton, NY.