PRD - Artist Focus (Lesson)

Artist Focus: Jasper Johns

Our focus for this module is an artist who designs his artworks using both pattern and rhythm. He is an American artist whose artwork has sold for millions of dollars earning him the title of most paid for a work by a living artist multiple times.

Photo of Jasper Johns in front of his artwork, Flag.

Georgia Artist

Jasper Johns was born in 1930 in Augusta, Georgia. He began drawing at a very young age, with a vague intention of wanting to become an artist, but only pursued an official art education in college. He described his childhood desire to become an artist, stating, "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 moved in with his Aunt Gladys for a few years in his adolescence during which she taught him, and two other students, in a one-room schoolhouse.

Johns, Jasper. Zero through Nine, Encaustic painting, 1961

Beginning of His Concept

Upon returning to New York after an honorable discharge from the army in 1953, Johns met the young artist Robert Rauschenberg, who ushered him into the art scene. Johns noted that he "learned what an artist was from watching [Rauschenberg]." Through their constant contact, they deeply influenced each other's artwork, exchanging ideas and techniques that broke from the then-dominant style of Abstract Expressionism. It was during this time that Johns began painting his American flag paintings and targets, using a method that combined bits of newspaper and scraps of fabric on paper and canvas and covered with encaustic paint (pigment mixed with wax).

Johns, Jasper. Three Flags, Encaustic painting, 1958.  

Using Symbols to Drive His Medium

Flag allowed Johns to create a painting that was not completely abstract because it depicted a symbol (the American flag) yet drew attention to the graphic design of the symbol itself; was not personal because it was a national symbol, and yet, retained a sense of the handmade in the wax brushstrokes; and was not itself a literal flag, yet was not simply a painting. The painting raises a set of complex questions with no clear answers through its combination of symbol and medium. Johns has made over forty variations of American flag paintings.

Johns, Jasper. White Flag, Encaustic painting, 1955.  

Mind/Mirror Exhibition

Though this is a video about an exhibition of Jasper Johns' work, it does explain more about why he creates these types of artworks.

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