Perilous Night by Jasper Johns

Various images by Jasper Johns
1. Jasper Johns, Flags I, 1973, screenprint, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection 1994.82.8
2. Jasper Johns, LIght Bulb, 1966, lithograph, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of the Woodward Foundation, Washington, DC 1976.56.74
3. Jasper Johns, Untitled (from "Untitled 1972"), 1975/1976, pastel and graphite on paper, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Jasper Johns, in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art 1990.107.1
4. Jasper Johns, 0 through 9, 1960, lithograph, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection 1964.8.1129

From his first flag paintings, Johns has relied almost exclusively on found images and motifs, such as the American flag, light bulbs, numbers, or the flagstone pattern he saw on a painted wall in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. Johns has persistently re-used motifs throughout his career, a practice through which they change and can accumulate meaning and even form. He is often described as a cerebral artist whose complex paintings defy interpretation, but he has explored certain themes frequently: the relationship between perception, language, and art; the fusion of the literal and the abstract; the body; mortality; how art acquires meaning; and the very materials and processes that produce works of art.