How did Jasper Johns use encaustic paint in his artworks?

Jasper Johns utilized encaustic painting—a technique involving pigments mixed with hot liquid wax—to create his iconic works featuring flags, targets, and maps.12

By employing this fast-drying, wax-based medium, Johns was able to achieve a distinct, thick, impasto-like surface texture that became a hallmark of his style. In his famous work Flag, for example, he applied the encaustic paint onto strips of newspaper that were adhered to canvases and mounted on plywood.32

This method allowed Johns to manipulate surface texture with extreme sensitivity, elevating commonplace, two-dimensional subjects into iconic status. His use of encaustic served as a deliberate, cerebral departure from the emotional, gestural styles of Abstract Expressionism that dominated the art scene at the time, helping to pave the way for the Pop art movement.23