2002
Jasper Johns
 
Cropped Head image
Original Image used according to the fair use provision of MOMA, www.moma.org
Assignment Background Timeline Websites Books Related Events
 
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Assignment
 
What were some of the characteristics of Johns' work that helped to define the emergent Pop Art movement of the 1950s-1970s?
 

Background
False Start; Image used according to the fair use provision of MOMA, www.moma.org

Born in Augusta, Georgia, on 15 May 1930, Jasper Johns grew up wanting to be an artist in Allendale, South Carolina.  After briefly studying--not art--at the University of South Carolina, he moved to New York in the early 1950s.  There he met the artist Robert Rauschenberg, who lived in the same apartment building, the composer John Cage and the choreographer Merce Cunningham.  Johns and Rauschenberg discussed art and discovered that they were both interested in moving away from the abstract expressionist style popular at the time.

Johns' first painting, and in many respects his most important work, was Flag (1955).   Simply put, his bold rendering of the American flag took up an entire "canvas" (done in encaustic--pigment mixed with hot wax--oil and collage on fabric mounted on three plywood panels, 42 1/4" x 60 5/8").  People did not know how to view,or understand, the painting, since it seemed simply to be a "flag."  But the painting, in its "everydayness," became one of the defining images of the Pop Art movement.

Johns soon began to paint popular and simple objects, beer cans, brushes, an archery target, maps, letters of the alphabet--Johns claimed that there were really no hidden symbolic references in his work--in order to highlight the differences and similarities between a real object and its painted image.  This "real imagery" was a radical break from the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1950s.

In January 1958 the Leo Castelli Gallery (owned by Leo Castelli) in New York held Johns' first solo exhibition at which the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) acquired three of Johns' works.  The MOMA purchase clearly established Johns as a growing presence in the art world.

In the 1960s Johns began to move away from his earlier work on and use of representational real imagery.  While continuing to paint "objects," he also introduced sculptural elements into his work by affixing ordinary things, such as beer cans and light bulbs, to the surface of his canvases.  He also began to be interested in printmaking, especially as a medium that allowed for experimentation and repetition.

Through the 1970s, Johns explored altered formats to produce some of the largest paintings of his career.  He created paintings composed of clusters of parallel lines that he called "cross-hatchings," such as his four-panel work Untitled (1972).  These "cross-hatched" paintings clearly indicated that Johns had moved from the depiction of the everyday object (Pop Art) into the realm of the abstract, with a new (for Johns) focus on technique and the painting process.

By the 80s, Johns' work had changed again, partly as a result of his interest in Pablo Picasso.  Many of his paintings from this time bear autobiographical and emotional imprints.

By the 1990s, Johns struck out again on a bizarre new direction.  Green Angel (1990), for example, challenged the viewer to focus attention on the transformed image.

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Timeline
 
1930, born 15 May in Augusta, Georgia

1947-48, studied at the University of South Carolina

1950s, moved to New York to pursue a painting career

1954, met the artist Robert Rauschenberg

1955, Flag (1955), his breakthrough painting

1958, first exhibition for gallery owner Leo Castelli

1963, map (1963) of the United States

1967, met poet Frank O'Hara and illustrated his book, In Memory of My Feelings

1970s, collabored with Samuel Beckett on his book Fizzles

1980s, shifted his work to realist figuration

1990, Green Angel (1990)

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Websites
 
Some useful websites include:
Painted Bronze; Image used according to the fair use provision of MOMA, www.moma.org
Some short essays: There is little scholarly material about Pop Art on the web: Back to Top
 

Recommended Books
 
Some great books about Jasper Johns:
  • Jasper Johns, by Jasper Johns (1997)
  • Jasper Johns, by Richard Francis (1984)
  • Jasper Johns, by Roberta Bernstein (1992)
  • Jasper Johns:  35 Years [with] Leo Castelli, edited by Susan Brundage (1993)
  • Jasper Johns, by Michael Crichton (1994)
  • Jasper Johns:  Privileged Information, by Jill Johnston (1997)
  • Jasper Johns to Jeff Koons:  Four Decades of Art from the Broad Collections, by Stephanie Barron (2001)
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Related Events
 
Jackson Pollock
 
Keith Haring
 
Andy Warhol
 
John Lennon

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For information contact cevans@nvcc.edu