Jasper Johns
Johns, Jasper
American, born 1930
Born in Augusta, Georgia, Jasper Johns spent much of his childhood in South Carolina. He briefly attended the University of South Carolina but in 1949 moved to New York City, where he took classes at a commercial art school. Drafted into the Army, he was stationed in Japan. He had returned to New York by 1952. He initially supported himself by working in a bookstore and designing window displays with Robert Rauschenberg for prestigious Fifth Avenue stores such as Tiffany and Bonwit Teller.
Johns emerged as a notable artist in the 1950s in the wake of the intensely personal, gestural painting of the abstract expressionists. Early in his career he was credited with returning recognizable objects to the visual arts by presenting them in a cool, seemingly detached, and often enigmatic manner. Johns has almost always selected the raw material of his art from preexisting images, or what he has called "things the mind already knows." Early in his career, in the 1950s and 1960s, he chose widely familiar "things," such as numerals or shapes derived from commercial stencils, targets, American flags, and maps of the United States. His first solo show at the Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, in 1958 included paintings with these motifs and was an instant success. In the early 1980s Johns began using a number of images known more to his mind than the public's: personal possessions like ceramic pots, works of art, and pictures clipped from newspapers.
Johns' painting, sculpture, drawing, and printmaking are all closely related. He is interested in the play between an image and the medium, and frequently explores the same subjects using different techniques. Johns' methods of juxtaposing forms, his choice of materials, and his handling of color make his images function as signs that offer a range of possible meanings for each work.
Jasper Johns is widely celebrated as one of the most influential American artists of the postwar era. His work combines intellectual challenge with highly sensual handling of materials. Johns is also regarded as one of the greatest graphic artists of this century, and his lithographs, screenprints, and etchings have been exhibited widely.
[This is an excerpt from the interactive companion to the videodisc American Art from the National Gallery of Art.]
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Artwork

Untitled from Artists for Obama
Untitled from Artists for Obama
Jasper Johns, Case Hudson, Gemini G.E.L. · 2008 · etching and aquatint on wove Hahnemühle Copperplate paper from a portfolio of eight lithographs and five etchings · Accession ID 2009.69.1.5
Artwork

Artists for Obama [special proof]
Artists for Obama [special proof]
Susan Rothenberg, Richard Tuttle, Gemini G.E.L., Various Artists, John Baldessari, Jonathan Borofsky, Frank Gehry, Ann Hamilton, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Brice Marden, Julie Mehretu, Ken Price, Ed Ruscha, Richard Serra · 2008 · portfolio of eight lithographs and five etchings (one with aquatint) on wove paper · Accession ID 2009.69.1.1-13
Artwork

Artwork

Artists Coming Together
Artists Coming Together
Various Artists, John Baldessari, Cecily Brown, Frank Gehry, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Elizabeth Murray, Robert Rauschenberg, Susan Rothenberg, Ed Ruscha, Richard Serra, Gemini G.E.L. · 2004 · portfolio of two screenprints and eight lithographs · Accession ID 2005.97.1-10
Artwork

Untitled [trial proof]
Untitled [trial proof]
Jasper Johns · 2001 · etching and aquatint in brown on buff paper [trial proof] · Accession ID 2010.116.464
Artwork

Flag and Vase [working proof]
Flag and Vase [working proof]
Jasper Johns, John Lund, Low Road Studio · 2001 · color linocut on collage on folded laid paper [working proof] · Accession ID 2010.116.629
Artwork

Flag and Vase [proof]
Flag and Vase [proof]
Jasper Johns, John Lund, Low Road Studio · 2001 · color linocut on laid paper [proof] · Accession ID 2010.116.632
Artwork

Untitled [trial proof]
Untitled [trial proof]
Jasper Johns · 2001 · color etching and aquatint on wove paper [trial proof] · Accession ID 2010.116.457
Artwork

Untitled [trial proof]
Untitled [trial proof]
Jasper Johns · 2001 · etching and aquatint in brown and black on buff wove paper [trial proof] · Accession ID 2010.116.421