Jasper Johns
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
(Difference between revisions)
| Revision as of 08:53, 24 July 2007 WikiSysop (Talk | contribs) (→Other work) ← Previous diff |
Current revision Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| {{Template}} | {{Template}} | ||
| - | '''Jasper Johns, Jr.''' (born [[May 15]], [[1930]] in [[Augusta, Georgia]]) is a contemporary [[United States|U.S.]] artist in painting and [[printmaking]]. | + | '''Jasper Johns''' (1930) is an [[American artist]] best known for his painting ''[[Flag (painting)|Flag]]'' (1954), a depiction of the [[American flag]]. |
| - | ==Early life== | + | At multiple points in his career, his work has held the title of [[List of most expensive artworks by living artists|highest known price paid for an artwork by a living artist]]. |
| - | Jasper Johns grew up in [[Allendale, South Carolina]], and recounting this period in his life, he says, "In the place where I was a child, there were no artists and there was no art, so I really didn't know what that meant. I think I thought it meant that I would be in a situation different than the one that I was in." | + | |
| - | Johns studied at the [[University of South Carolina]] from 1947 to [[1948]], a total of three semesters. He then moved to [[New York City]] and studied briefly at [[Parsons School of Design]] in [[1949]]. While in New York, Johns met [[Robert Rauschenberg]], [[Merce Cunningham]] and [[John Cage]]. Working together they explored the contemporary art scene, and began developing their ideas on art. In 1952 and 1953 he was stationed in [[Sendai]], [[Japan]] during the [[Korean War]]. | ||
| - | In 1958, gallery owner [[Leo Castelli]] discovered Johns while visiting [[Robert Rauschenberg]]'s studio. | + | {{GFDL}} |
| - | + | ||
| - | ==Work== | + | |
| - | He is best known for his painting ''[[Flag]]'' (1954-55), which he painted after having a dream of the [[flag of the United States|American flag]]. His work is often described as a '[[Neo-Dadism|Neo-Dadaist]]', as opposed to [[pop art]], even though his subject matter often includes images and objects from popular culture. Still, many compilations on pop art include Jasper Johns as a pop artist because of his artistic use of classical iconography. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | Early works were composed using simple schema such as flags, maps, targets, letters and numbers. Johns' treatment of the surface is often lush and painterly; he is famous for incorporating such media as [[Encaustic]] (wax-based paint), and plaster relief in his paintings. Johns played with and presented opposites, contradictions, [[paradox]]es, and ironies, much like [[Marcel Duchamp]] (who was associated with the [[Dada]] movement). Johns also produces [[intaglio (printmaking)|intaglio]] prints, [[sculpture]]s and [[lithograph]]s with similar motifs. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | Johns' breakthrough move, which was to inform much later work by others, was to appropriate popular iconography for painting, thus allowing a set of familiar associations to answer the need for subject. Though the [[Abstract Expressionists]] disdained subject matter, in the end it could be said that they simply changed subjects. Johns neutralized the subject, so that something like pure paint--painted surface--could declare itself. For twenty years after Johns painted "Flag," the surface--in [[Andy Warhol]]'s silkscreens or [[Robert Irwin]]'s illuminated ambiances--could suffice. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | In contrast to the concept of macho 'artist hero' as ascribed to [[Abstract Expressionist]] figures such as [[Jackson Pollock]] and [[Willem de Kooning]], whose paintings are fully [[indexical]] (that is, standing effectively as an all-over canvas signature), '[[Neo-Dadaists]]' like Johns and [[Robert Rauschenberg]] seem preoccupied with a lessening of the reliance of their art on indexical qualities, seeking instead to create meaning solely through the use of conventional [[symbols]], painted indexically in mockery of the hallowed individuality of the Abstract Expressionists. There is also the issue of symbols existing outside of any referential context; Johns' flag, for instance, is primarily a visual object, divorced from its symbolic connotations and reduced to something in-itself. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | In 1998, the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] in New York paid more than $20 million for Johns' ''White Flag''. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | In 2006, private collectors Anne and Kenneth Griffin (founder of the Chicago-based [[hedge fund]] [[Citadel Investment Group]]) bought Johns' ''False Start'' for $80 million. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | ==Other work== | + | |
| - | Jasper Johns once guest-starred on ''[[The Simpsons]]'' as himself. In the episode "[[Mom and Pop Art]]", [[Homer Simpson]] accidentally becomes an artist, and Johns attends one of his exhibitions. Johns is portrayed as a [[kleptomaniac]], stealing items of food, lightbulbs, a motor boat, and a painting [[Marge Simpson|Marge]] is working on. | + | |
| - | * [[White Flag]] (1955) | + | |
| - | * False Start (1959) | + | |
| - | * Study for Skin (1962) | + | |
| - | * Figure Five (1963-64) | + | |
| - | * Seasons (1986) | + | |
| - | * Three Flags (1958){{GFDL}} | + | |
Current revision
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Jasper Johns (1930) is an American artist best known for his painting Flag (1954), a depiction of the American flag.
At multiple points in his career, his work has held the title of highest known price paid for an artwork by a living artist.
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Jasper Johns" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
