Jasper Johns

Jasper Johns 1930 Augusta/Giorgia - lives in New York and Edisto Beach/South Carolina The American Jasper Johns, born on May 15, 1930 in Augusta in the state of Giorgia, begins his career as a painter and graphic artist with studies from 1947 at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, which he breaks off, however, already in December 1948 to move to New York. Here he attended the Parsons School of Design for two semesters before being drafted into military service in 1951/52. He then enrolled at Hunter College in New York in 1952, working in a bookstore for a living. Jasper Johns moved in the hip artistic circles of New York, which was preparing to be the new center of the avant-garde in America in the 1950s with abstract expressionism, and was close friends with Robert Rauschenberg. Art in Transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art Like Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns belongs to the circle around the charismatic composer and artist John Cage and is also influenced by his ideas in his artistic work, which begins in the early 1950s. In a sketchbook entry, Jasper Johns writes, almost as a working instruction to himself, "Take an object, do something with it, do something else with it." Based on the gestural painting gesture, yet overcoming the transfiguring painting-only approach of abstract expressionism, Jasper Johns' interest is in the painterly representation of an object, though it does not matter what that object is. "Flags", "Targets", "Numbers", "Maps" - Flags, Targets, Numbers and Maps In 1954/55 he created the work "Flag" (now in the Museum of Modern Art, New York), the first flag painting, iconic at the beginning of the work of this pioneer of Pop Art. "One night I dreamed I was painting a big American flag. The next morning I got up and bought the material to start with," Jasper Johns describes his brainstorming in an interview. This is followed by a long series of paintings of the American flag, supplemented by series of works with the famous "Targets", as well as the "Maps", maps, and the "Numbers" with the numbers 0 to 9 superimposed on each other or painted in sequence. By repeating the same object over and over again, Jasper Johns does not focus on what is depicted, but on the way it is depicted. To depict the American flag, Jasper Johns collages newspaper clippings onto canvas and paints over them using the technique of encaustic, pigments mixed with hot wax. Due to the rapid cooling, the encaustic leaves all traces of the paint application, both brushstrokes, accumulations of paint and drips, visible and many times more emphasized than the pure application of paint. Jasper Johns used standardizing stencils for the first numerical images, which began to appear in 1955. Over the years, the representations become more and more complex; through the superimposition of the numerals, they lose their structure, are no longer recognizable, and virtually dissolve. Precursor of Pop Art Jasper Johns abolishes the traditional distinction between everyday objects and art objects in his works, which makes him a precursor of Pop Art, without his work being attributed to this style. In the artistic representation with colors, collaged components and their alienation character, Jasper Johns opens the free space of a new perception to the viewer, to think comprehensively about the object itself with all its positive and negative aspects, to find new associations. In 1957 the gallery owner Leo Castelli saw works by Jasper Johns in his studio for the first time and was enthusiastic. In 1958 he organizes the first solo exhibition for Jasper Johns in his gallery in New York, where Alfred Barr buys four works for the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Ileana Sonnabend, Leo Castelli's ex-wife and herself a gallery owner, who opens her own gallery in Paris in 1962, shows Jasper Johns in Europe for the first time in November and December 1962. Jasper Johns' works are shown at Documenta in Kassel in 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1977. In 1988 Jasper Johns is awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale. In addition to paintings, Jasper Johns also creates an extensive graphic oeuvre, produces stage sets and costumes for Merce Cunningham and his Dance Company. Jasper Johns received numerous honors during his long artistic life, including induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1973), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1984), and the American Philosophical Society (2007). In 2011, Jasper Johns was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. Jasper Johns lives in New York and Edisto Beach, South Carolina.