Who's Afraid of Red, White, and Blue?

Text free of underlining, writing and highlighting. Very nice clean copy. Since Picasso first used the handlebars and seat of a bicycle to form the head of a bull, found objects have become favorite materials of twentieth-century sculpture. From Duchamp's readymades to Armaris accumulations, existing objects have taken on an art life of their own. We had no idea what to expect in 1989 when Donald Lipski accepted our invitation to do a project with The Fabric Workshop and the staff and students of Beaver College and the University of the Arts. In his studio in Brooklyn, we found a gigantic American flag on the wall. Donald had burned it with polka dots in a symmetrical pattern, leaving the thread intact (Boy Scouts used to repair their old flags this way to keep them from unraveling). Donald explained, "People ask: Is this desecration? I say no, its decoration." In another corner, he had torn a flag into strips and then tied the strips together with knots. "This is my first flag ball," he said, "and I think we should call it Who's Afraid of Red, White, and Blue?" which he had wrapped into a big ball. From this beginning, Donald Lipski, whose work seems to have multiple layers of meaning, has done more and more and more with the American flag. His early training as a magician may have helped. Since the first American flag is reputed to have been made by Betsy Ross in Philadelphia, where The Fabric Workshop is located, Lipski's collaboration with us two centuries later seemed both logical and fortuitous. We thank him for allowing us to share in the process of being an American artist, and in such astounding and inventive ways. At a time when flags fly everywhere?from the county courthouse to Calvin Klein shorts?Donald Lipski makes the flag more than a hollow symbol, prophetically covering our planet in red, white, and blue. MARION BOULTON STROUD Founder and Artistic Director, The Fabric Workshop March 22, 1991. …