gordon gallery

AB THE FLAGMAN (ROGER LEE IVENS)

(1964-2022) GA

“Born at Lookout Mountain, TN, Roger Lee Ivens was only seven when his father, an army man, died and was given a full military funeral with the American flag draped over the coffin. His fascination with the American flag stems from that moment.

In elementary school in Atlanta, Roger once asked his teacher what ‘abstract art’ was, leading his classmates to start calling him Abstract. Later, while working on a construction job, his co-workers shortened this to Ab.

While working as a carpenter at a wood shop he began to see a connection between the pieces of left-over wood and the flags he had been collecting since his father's death. He began layering and interweaving the wood scraps, turning them into the three-dimensional flag sculptures for which he is most well-known. This ultimately earned him the title ‘Flagman.’”

—from The Hickory Museum of Art, Hickory NC (http://hickoryart.org)