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Jasper Johns: An Allegory
of Painting, 1955-1965
January 28 - April 29, 2007
The work of Jasper
Johns (b. 1930) represents an important breakthrough in art at midcentury,
a period of radical change in American art. Themes 
developed
in the first decade of his career will be examined as a group for the first
time in a comprehensive exhibition of 84 works, on view at the National
Gallery of Art, Washington, January 28 through April 29, 2007. (right:
Jasper Johns (born 1930), Target with Four Faces, 1955, encaustic
on newspaper and cloth over canvas surmounted by four tinted-plaster faces
in wood box with hinged front . The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift
of Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Scull, 1958. © 2006 Jasper Johns/Licensed
by VAGA, New York, NY)
Jasper Johns: An Allegory of Painting, 1955-1965 presents some of Johns' most iconic paintings,
drawings, and prints selected from public and private collections, including
the artist's own. Departing from the format of the survey or retrospective,
the show will trace the unfolding relationship of four specific motifs in
Johns' works-the target, the "device," the stenciled naming of
colors, and the imprint of the body-revealing the works' significance to
the following generation of artists. The exhibition includes the largest
group of target paintings ever assembled. After Washington, the exhibition
will travel to the Kunstmuseum Basel, June 2 through September 9, 2007,
the only other venue. The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery
of Art, Washington.
"Jasper Johns is one of the most influential figures
in the history of postwar art and the National Gallery of Art's commitment
to his work draws from its profound historical significance," said
Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art. "We are proud
to premiere an exhibition of this scope, which provides enormous insight
into Johns' philosophy of painting. We are enormously grateful to Target
for this sponsorship- its fourth sponsorship at the National Gallery of
Art- and Target's continuing commitment to the Gallery."
The Exhibition
In 1954, in an attempt to reinvent himself, Johns destroyed
all the work he had made up to that point. He wanted to start over as an
artist and sought a new direction away from abstract expressionism. In pairs
and sequences of paintings and works on paper, Johns reduced art-making
to a series of quasi-mechanical procedures. These techniques and their significance
were embodied by four related motifs: the target, the "device,"
the stenciled naming of colors, and the imprint of the body, which appeared
alone or together in various combinations and excluded almost all other
images, most notably the flag and the number.
Jasper Johns: An Allegory of Painting, 1955-1965 is arranged chronologically in sequences
of closely related works:
- Target: Of the four earliest
icons (targets, flags, numbers, and maps) that occupy his work, the target
is Johns' most abstract image. Representing something anonymous and universal,
the familiar target appears in Johns' work until 1961. His first two paintings
of the target image, Target with Plaster Casts (1955) and Target
with Four Faces (1955), incorporate a row on top of small cubicle-like
boxes with hinged drop doors, each containing a plaster cast of a body
part.
-
- Mechanical device: The target
as a subject is replaced by the mechanical "device" -- a wooden,
compass-like instrument attached to the canvas by a pivot on one end and
manipulated to scrape through the paint surface in circles and arcs. The
first of these works, Device Circle (1959), is affixed with the
kind of compass arm that Johns used to create his target images. From Device
Circle , Johns produced two simultaneous sequences of work: those that
show the artist changing his manner of applying paint (in long strokes
of the brush) and introduce the stenciled color names, and those that use
or depict the device.
-
- Stenciled naming of colors: Johns
began naming colors with stenciled lettering in the paintings False
Start (1959) and Jubilee (1960). In these works, he labeled
and mislabeled colors using red, yellow, blue, and orange paint in the
former, and black, white, and gray paint in the latter.
-
- Imprint of the Body: Combining
themes of sensuality and mortality, Johns began using his own body as an
instrument and an image. In works such as Periscope (Hart Crane )
(1963), he incorporated the stenciled words RED YELLOW BLUE and a device
image that is attached to an imprint of his palm. In this way, the artist
compared the device to his own outstretched arm. In the Skin drawings
(1962), Johns covered his head and hands with baby oil and left an impression
of these body parts on mechanical drafting paper. The images were revealed
when he rubbed them with strokes of charcoal. In Arrive/Depart (1963-1964),
the composition of red, yellow, blue, and orange paint incorporates several
handprints and the imprint of a skull.
Throughout the second half of the exhibition, various works
represent a complex combination of the motifs. New themes also emerge: Periscope
(Hart Crane ) is presumed to reference Crane's suicide by drowning through
the image of the extended arm. Together with this painting, works such as
Passage (1962) and Land's End (1963), which also draw their
titles from Crane's poems, form a sequence of works dedicated to Crane.
Others, such as the uncommonly large paintings Diver (1962) and According
to What (1964), are compilations of motifs and techniques. By contrast,
one large drawing, also titled Diver (1962-1963), is an expansive
but diagrammatic representation of the body as device. The monochromatic
painting Voice (1964-1967) is also startlingly spare. Here the device
moves through a field of gray paint, leaving behind a single curving band
that brings us back to the image of the target, where we began.
Jasper Johns
Over the past 50 years, Jasper Johns has created a rich
body of work that has had profound influence on art in the U.S. and Europe.
Johns was born in 
Augusta, Georgia,
in 1930 and raised in South Carolina. After attending the University of
South Carolina for three semesters, he moved to New York City at the age
of nineteen and briefly attended a commercial art school. After service
in the army, including a period in Japan, he returned to New York in 1953,
where he flourished as an artist. (right: Johns in front of Target
with Plaster Casts, c. 1959, Photograph by Walt Silver. © Robert
Rauschenberg/Licensed by VAGA,New York, NY)
Along with his contemporary Robert Rauschenberg, Johns
is widely acknowledged as one of the most important American painters of
the postwar era and one of the greatest living American painters. He is
also regarded as one of the greatest graphic artists of the 20th century,
creating important bodies of drawings as well as prints in a variety of
media. In 1950s New York, Johns met John Cage and Merce Cunningham, with
whom he collaborated, producing sets and props for performances. Johns'
work on canvas and paper from that period, often limited to a single motif
against a monochromatic field, has since attained enormous historical stature.
Subsequently, his work has grown increasingly complex, even quasi-autobiographical.
Developments such as abstract painting and drawing in a crosshatch manner
further distinguish Johns' contribution to the history of art since midcentury.
The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Johns was
inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1988, and that
same year he was awarded the Golden Lion, the grand prize at the Venice
Biennale. Johns resides in New York City, Connecticut, and the French West
Indies.
Curator
Jeffrey Weiss is Curator and Head of Modern and Contemporary
Art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Weiss holds a Ph.D from
the Institute of Fine Arts in New York. Between 1986 and 1989, he was a
doctoral fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts in Washington.
His book, The Popular Culture of Modern Art, was published by Yale
University Press in 1994. Weiss is also the editor and author of exhibition
catalogues on Mark Rothko and Pablo Picasso. He has published articles and
reviews on modern and post-war art in various periodicals and journals,
including Burlington Magazine ,Artforum and La Revue de
l'Art. Recent essays have appeared in anthologies from Princeton University
Press and the Getty Research Institute. Weiss has served on various public
art committees, including the General Services Administration in Washington.
He currently holds the first Kirk Varnedoe Professorship at the Institute
of Fine Arts in New York. In preparation is the exhibition, Matisse:
Painting and Drawing, 1935-1948.
Catalogue
The exhibition curator and catalogue author is Jeffrey
Weiss, head of the department of modern and contemporary art, National Gallery
of Art, Washington. Jasper Johns: An Allegory of Painting, 1955-1965
is published by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in association
with Yale University Press, New 
Haven
and London, and includes essays by John Elderfield, The Marie-Josée
and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of
Modern Art, New York; Carol Mancusi-Ungaro, associate director for conservation
and research, Whitney Museum of American Art; Robert Morris, American artist,
critic, and Johns contemporary; and Kathryn A. Tuma, assistant professor
of modern art, Johns Hopkins University. The publication will be available
late January 2007 from the National Gallery of Art Web site at www.nga.gov
or by phone at (202) 842-6002 or (800) 697-9350. (right: Jeffrey
Weiss is Curator and Head of Modern and Contemporary Art, National Gallery
of Art in Washington. Photo: Kathryn Tuma)
The National Gallery of Art is planning a full program
of related lectures, tours, and concerts. (See Related Activities Press
Release).
Editor's note: RL readers may also enjoy:
and on pop art:
the States
and Variations: Prints by Jasper Johns press event opening remarks
(51:54 minutes) by Earl A. Powell III and Ruth Fine
and this video:
Roy Lichtenstein (Portrait of an Artist) is a 49 minute video directed by Chris Hunt and produced in 1991 by Iambic
Productions for RM Arts; London Weekend Television; RM Arts. The artist
talks about his use of cartoon images, his homage to art history, and his
magnified brush strokes theme.
rev 1/19/07
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