Jasper Johns
American Painter, Sculptor and Printmaker, 1930 -
Embedded Files
No. 7 Colored Number Series
No. 7 Colored Number Series
Signed by artist
c. 1969
Framed: 30 x 38 inches
Inside Image: 21 x 28 inches
About This Piece
About This Piece
His efforts helped lead into a renaissance of printmaking in the United States. The collage-like composition of Figure 7 attests to Johns’ individual style that intellectually reflects modern life and is difficult to associate with one particular art movement. He favored subjects that the mind already knows yet overlooks due to familiarity. The text Mona Lisa is printed on the composition Figure 7, so that this print in particular can be seen as a pun on the meaning of a figure. His similar Color Numerals series draws on the decimal system conception and how counting with fingers utilizes one’s eye, mind, and body. Numerics as a motif was an interest of his from 1955 to 1970. Repetition for the series extended beyond 1-9 since he was reworking stones and plates from the previous numerals series. His fascination with numbers was celebrated in LACMA’s 2004 exhibition Jasper Johns: Numbers. The rich texture witnessed in his paintings is evident in the patterns on this print, which displays many layers of gray and black lines.
Signed by artist
c. 1985-1991
Framed: 16 1/2 x 20 inches
Inside Image: 7 1/4 x 11 inches
Edition: 108 /225
About This Piece
About This Piece
"Summer (Blue)" stems from Johns' series of four large encaustic paintings titled "The Seasons" which debuted at the famed Leo Castelli Gallery (NYC) in 1987. Each painting was named after one of the four seasons and mixed cultural artifacts with seasonal symbols of growth, life, and death. Click here for the original exhibition review of "The Seasons" by the New York Times.
-This body of work was both allegorical and highly personal. Johns appears in the work as the filled-in silhouette alongside an outstretched arm and hand pointing to the progress of the year and the stage of the man's (Johns') life. Notice the thin, light-colored branch with a tiny hummingbird perched on it.
-In the left panel, Mona Lisa's mysterious gaze signals John's affinity for Leonardo da Vinci (and appropriation). Surrounding her are two of Johns' favorite motifs: the American flag and cross-hatching patterns. (Click here to see another example of Johns' signature cross-hatching.)
-Also appearing in the image are vessels created by American potter George Ohr (1857-1918). Ohr's ground-breaking practice led him to be considered a precursor to American Expressionism.
-Lastly, there is a tiny and ambiguous seahorse. These sea creatures defy heteronormative gender roles, as the males typically become impregnated and give birth. To Johns, a gay man, this tiny creature could carry important challenges to traditional narratives of gender and sexuality.
Target Painting Kit - 4 Kits total
Target Painting Kit - 4 Kits total
Jasper Johns Target (Jasper Johns Target Technics and Creativity MoMa 1971), 1971
Mixed Media offset lithograph in colors with collage of watercolor pads and brush
About The Artist
Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and pop art. He is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related topics. Johns' works regularly sell for millions of dollars at sale and auction, including a reported $110 million sale in 2010. At multiple times works by Johns have held the title of most paid for a work by a living artist.
Johns has received many honors throughout his career, including receipt of the National Medal of Arts in 1990, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. In 2018, The New York Times called him the United States' "foremost living artist.
Jasper Johns was an artist that came onto the scene in the 1950s. Much of the work that he created led the American public away from the expressionism form, and towards an art movement or form known as the concrete. He would depict many flags and maps, and this created a more distinct style with the work that was being done during this period in American art history. He was also one of the leading forces to the pop form known as minimalism; even to this day, many of the pieces that are sold at auction, bring in extremely high price tags, and sell for record amounts.
From an early age, he grew up wanting to be an artist. Before moving to New York in the early 1950s, he studied for a brief period at the University of South Carolina. Upon moving to New York, Jasper Johns met artists, which led him down the road of wanting to work in this career field even more. John Cage (composer) and Merce Cunningham (choreographer), and Robert Rauschenburg (painter), were some of the early influences he met in New York.
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