Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns, Jr. is a prominent American artist known for his innovative contributions to modern art, particularly in the realms of pop art and minimalism. Born in South Carolina, he showed artistic talent from a young age and later moved to New York City to pursue art after briefly attending the University of South Carolina. Influenced by abstract expressionism and artists like Picasso and Pollock, Johns began incorporating everyday objects—such as flags, targets, and numerals—into his work, challenging traditional artistic norms. His 1958 solo exhibition at the Leo Castelli Gallery was a pivotal moment in his career, marking him as a significant figure in contemporary art.
Johns's artistic journey includes a notable collaboration with fellow artist Robert Rauschenberg, with whom he explored mixed media and the use of found objects. His works often invite viewers to reconsider familiar imagery, presenting them in new and thought-provoking ways. Over the years, his pieces have achieved high acclaim, with some, like his 1983 Flag, fetching millions at auction. In addition to painting, Johns has ventured into sculpture and printmaking, solidifying his impact on the art world. His recent exhibitions, including a retrospective in 2017, reflect on six decades of creativity, while his plans for an artist's retreat demonstrate his commitment to fostering future generations of artists.
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Subject Terms
Jasper Johns
- Born: May 15, 1930
- Birthplace: Augusta, Georgia
With his paintings of recognizable objects, Jasper Johns was the first influential American artist during the 1950’s to move away from abstract expressionism. As a result, he became one of the leading proponents of pop art.
Jasper Johns, Jr., was the son of Jasper Johns, Sr., and Jean Riley Johns. He grew up primarily in South Carolina, where he began to draw by the time he was three. After graduating from high school in 1947, Johns attended the University of South Carolina. He left college after three semesters and moved to New York City to pursue a career as an artist. Johns took classes at the Parsons School of Design, and by taking the time to visit various museums and galleries, he became acquainted with the works of Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Hans Hofmann, and Isamu Noguchi. During the early 1950s, he served in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Japan and at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. After being discharged from the Army in 1953, Johns moved back to New York.
Rise of a Pop Artist
In 1954, Johns met fellow artist Robert Rauschenberg. The two artists became good friends, and they used each other as sounding boards for their various creative ideas. They experimented with adding “found” objects to their art, and they worked together designing window displays for Tiffany’s department store. Johns realized that he wanted his art to incorporate everyday items with the techniques that had grown out of abstract expressionism. Their work is sometimes classified as "neo dada" or pop art. Unsatisfied with the art that he already had created, Johns destroyed most of his completed paintings. In a dream, he saw himself painting the American flag. Out of this vision Johns was inspired to paint his first flag. It was his intention to paint “things the mind already knows” in such a way as to make the viewer see them in a totally new way. He became primarily concerned with the craft of his painting and the way in which he could present things that everybody would instantly recognize. Since there was a simplicity to his subject matter, the creative process itself took on greater meaning.
In 1955, Johns painted Target with Plaster Casts. This work would be the first in a series of target paintings. He also painted his first arabic numerals during this year. On January 20, 1958, his first one-person show opened at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City. This exhibition became the talk of the art world. It garnered critical acclaim, but there was also much discussion among artists and critics alike concerning the propriety of using ordinary images as subject matter. The controversy did not deter the director of the Museum of Modern Art from purchasing three pieces for the museum. In a bold statement to the art community, Johns’s Target with Faces was used on the cover of the January, 1958, issue of ARTnews magazine. Johns had established himself as an American artist who could not be ignored.
In 2013, Johns assistant, James Meyer, who worked for Johns from 1985 to 2012, was charged with the theft of more than twenty of Johns's works. Meyer sold the pieces to a New York gallery for approximately $6.5 million. Meyer was ordered to spent eighteen months in prison and pay $13 million in restitution. In 2014, Johns opened Regrets, a show of mixed media works at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). In a typical layering of meaning and image, Johns claimed his inspiration for the show was a photo of artist Lucian Freud pictured holding his head in his hands, and the title of the show came from a rubber stamp Johns had made many years prior to RSVP to invitations that said: Regrets/Jasper Johns. In 2017, Johns mounted a retrospective show called Something Resembling Truth that included sixty years of his work in a variety of media. The exhibition opened at London's Royal Academy of Arts and received mixed reviews.
In 2014, at Sotheby's contemporary art auction in New York Johns's 1983 Flag set a new record for his art selling for $36 million. In 2017, Johns, age eighty-seven, announced he would convert his 170-acre estate in Sharon, Connecticut, into an artist's retreat to be operational after his death.
Impact
Johns helped to move art away from the predominant abstract expressionism of the late 1940s and early 1950s by including “concrete” items in his paintings such as flags, targets, maps, and numerals. Through his efforts and those of Rauschenberg, the foundation was laid for the rise of such art movements as pop art and minimalism. In subsequent years, although Johns continued to paint “things the mind already knows,” he also branched out into sculpture and printmaking.
Bibliography
Bodick, Noelle. "How to Understand Jasper Johns's Haunting Regrets at MoMA." Artspace, 26 April 2014, www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews‗features/in‗depth/jasper‗johns‗regrets‗walk‗through-52234. Accessed 27 Oct. 2017.
Garrels, Gary, ed. et al. Jasper Johns: Seeing with the Mind's Eye. Yale University Press, 2012.
Heddaya, Mostafa. "Jasper Johns Assistant Charged with $6.5M Theft of 22 Unauthorized Works." Hyperallergic, 15 Aug. 2013,hyperallergic.com/79204/jasper-johns-assistant-charged-with-6-5m-theft-of-22-unauthorized-works/. Accessed 27 Oct. 2017.
Johns, Jasper. Jasper Johns: Writings, Sketchbook Notes, Interviews. Edited by Kirk Varnedoe. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1996. An important collection that exposes the artist through his own public and private thoughts.
Johnston, Jill. Jasper Johns: Privileged Information. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1996. An intimate and analytical portrait of the artist and the man.
Searle, Adrian. "Jasper Johns Review—Why Can't He Just Keep Things Simple?" The Guardian, 20 Sept. 2017, www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/sep/20/jasper-johns-review-why-cant-he-just-keep-things-simple. Accessed 27 Oct. 2017.