Drawing inspiration from an array of found materials – ranging from diamonds to detritus – Brazilian artist Vik Muniz meticulously recreates iconic works of art and images from pop culture, and photographs his handiwork. What remains is an image layered with complexities, one that investigates and destabilizes ideas of authorship, appropriation, and the medium of photography itself.

In Three Flags, after Jasper Johns from Pictures of Magazines 2, Muniz reimagines Jasper Johns’ signature work – a trio of American Flags, stacked atop one another, each diminishing in scale. Like Johns, Muniz is interested in recontextualizing the emblematic nature of the original subject matter. While Johns divested the symbolic nature of the American Flag, Muniz takes this a step further, forcing viewers to question both the aesthetics of the American Flag and the originality of his own creation.

At the time of our auction, Jasper Johns’ Three Flags can be viewed at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s upcoming exhibition, Japser Johns: Mind/Mirror, a major retrospective of the artist’s seven-decade career, opening September 29.