
En cambio, todos podían reconocer en esta obra de Johns, la bandera, un símbolo muy común.
JASPER JOHNS FOR KIDS SERIES
En ese sentido, la bandera también formó parte de una serie que incluía blancos, números y otras formas que Jasper Johns no inventó sino que estaban muy presentes en la cultura y las imágenes que lo rodeaban.Įstas series fueron muy radicales en su época, pues la mayoría de las pinturas que el artista veía y admiraba en Nueva York eran lienzos expresionistas abstractos llenos de trazos agresivos, emocionantes, de marcas bellas y diáfanas que los pintores, supuestamente, hacían directamente en la superficie y que inventaban como una manera de pensar acerca de la representación de un mundo nuevo. Es decir, aquellos objetos que vemos en nuestra vida cotidiana y que el artista no inventa. El artista dijo que pintó una bandera por vez primera porque la soñó y porque le interesaba pintar objetos que, como explicó, “ya fueran conocidos por la mente”. Fue realizada en 1958, alrededor de cuatro años después de que Johns hiciera su primera pintura de una bandera. Scott Rothkopf: Soy Scott Rothkopf, Curador en jefe Familia Nancy y Steve Crown en el Whitney Museum.Īhora contemplamos la pintura llamada Three Flags de Jasper Johns. As he remarked, this painting allowed him to “go beyond the limits of the flag, and to have different canvas space.” Videos View all By shifting the visual emphasis from the flag’s emblematic meaning to the geometric patterns and variegated texture of the picture surface and the canvas structure, Johns explores the boundary between abstraction and representation. The trio of flags-each successively diminished in scale by about twenty-five percent-projects outward, contradicting classical perspective, in which objects appear to recede from the viewer’s vantage point. The work’s structural arrangement adds to its complexity. The painting draws attention to the process of its making through Johns’s use of encaustic, a mixture of pigment suspended in warm wax that congeals as each stroke is applied the resulting accumulation of discrete marks creates a sensuous, almost sculptural surface. As an iconic image-comparable to the targets, maps, and letters that he also has depicted-Johns realized that the flag was “seen and not looked at, not examined.” The execution and composition of Three Flags elicit close inspection by the viewer.
JASPER JOHNS FOR KIDS FULL
Accompanying “mirroring” exhibitions held simultaneously at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, this lavishly illustrated volume features a selection of rarely published works along with never-before-published archival content and is full of revelations that allow us to engage with and understand the artist’s rich and varied body of work in new and meaningful ways.In 1954, Jasper Johns began painting what would become one of his signature emblems: the American flag. The various themes are further explored in a series of in-depth plate sections that combine prints, drawings, paintings, and sculptures to draw new connections in Johns’s vast output. These include Carroll Dunham on nightmares, Ruth Fine on monotypes and working proofs, Michio Hayashi on Japan, Terrance Hayes on flags, and Colm Toíbín on dreams, among many others.


Inspired by the artist’s long-standing fascination with mirroring and doubles, this book provides an original and exciting perspective on Johns’s work and its continued relevance.Ī diverse group of curators, academics, artists, and writers offer a series of essays-including many paired texts-that consider aspects of the artist’s work such as recurring motifs, explorations of place, and use of a wide array of media. Over the past 65 years, he has produced a radical and varied body of work marked by constant reinvention. 1930) is one of the most influential artists living today.
