Audio Description (02:26)

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In 1985 Robert Therrien painted No title (flagpole) in oil on a board just a touch over five feet tall and about three-and-a-third feet wide. It depicts the top portion of a flagpole in vibrant, deep reddish-orange floating at the center of a white and tan field. The flagpole is both distorted and reductionist: The ornamental ball on top is too huge, at least twice as big as it would be on a real flagpole. And it appears to be part of the pole, rather than added at the end the way an ornament would be after a flag has been placed on the pole. The extremely short pole itself unrealistically tapers down to a sharp point that would be impossible for a real flagpole to balance on. It resembles a pushpin more than a flagpole.

While the flagpole and its ball-shaped ornament on top are highly simplified in form, the painting is by no means simplistic. Therrien laid down a sunny yellow first and then the orange in thick, textured strokes. Highlights are created in areas where the orange paint is applied more lightly, allowing the underlying yellow to peek through in short spurts. Much of this central image is outlined with a very slim band of the yellow, giving it a light bulb-like glow and helping it seem to pop off the background.

The field around the flagpole is light both because of the pale paint used for it and the light touch the paint was given. On close inspection, many places have what seem like extremely thin stripes. These are not painted stripes; it is the texture of the board Therrien painted on showing through. All around, the white paint was applied energetically in wide swaths and sloping strokes. Where it is thinnest, the tan board peeks through. Where the paint is thickest, it is the brightest white.

Tools such as Google Maps were not around when this artwork was made. Nowadays the reddish-orange color and the bulb-shape atop a pointy tip could easily bring to mind the bright red digital pin one can place by touching the map on a computer or phone. While his flagpole is not quite the same shape as a Maps pin, it does not really appear to be much like an actual flagpole either. Perhaps it was foreshortened to give the illusion of peering down on it from above. The painting raises questions about the central image rather than depict it realistically or prescribe any particular use.