Out Spotlight

Today's Out Spotlight is painter and on of the most influential contemporary artist Jasper Johns. He is among the leading artists of the 20th century, with works in major museums all over the world.

Johns was born May 15, 1930 in Ausgusta, Georgia, moving early in his childhood and raised all over South Carolina. “In the place where I was a child, there were no artists and no art,” he said. His parents divorce when he was very young left Johns to grew up being passed among relatives, primarily being raised by his grandparents. He began drawing as a child, and by the age of five he dreamed of becoming an artist. It was such an unhappy childhood, Johns says, he was “dying” to get away from it.

After studying at the University of South Carolina for three semesters John left South Carolina moving to New York City to pursue a career in art. He briefly attended the Parsons School of Design in 1949. In New York, he explored the art scene and developed a circle of creative contemporaries, including composer John Cage, dancer Merce Cunningham and painter Robert Rauschenberg, with whom he developed a romantic and professional relationship.

At the age of twenty-four, living in New York City, he made the decision, as he describes it, to stop becoming an artist and actually be one. A dream led him to paint the American flag. He began to paint other iconic "found" images such as targets and numbers. These works were the polar opposite of abstract expressionism, the reigning style in New York City in the 1950s.

Discovered by gallery owner Leo Castelli, while visiting Rauschenberg's studio, in 1958, Castelli who was so impressed he gave Johns a solo show that same year. It was at that exhibition, Alfred Barr, the founding director of the Museum of Modern Art(New York)purchased three of his pieces, launching him as a major influence in contemporary art.

In 1963, Johns and Cage founded Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, now known as Foundation for Contemporary Arts in New York City.

Johns is widely recognized for the distinctive surface treatments of his paintings. With the use of media such as encaustic (paint mixed with melted wax) and plaster relief, his innovative techniques and experimentation made Johns a breakthrough artist.

His work is often described as a Neo-Dadaist, as opposed to pop art, even though his subject matter often includes images and objects from popular culture. Still, many compilations on pop art include Jasper Johns as a pop artist because of his artistic use of classical iconography.

“Flag” (1954-1955) is Johns’s best-known painting and considered by many his most important work. His use of classical iconography—flags, maps, targets, letters and numbers—became the hallmark of his early works.


Since the 1980s, Johns produces paintings at four to five a year, sometimes not at all during a year. His large scale paintings are much favored by collectors and due to their rarity, it is known that Johns' works are extremely difficult to acquire.


In 1998, Johns’s “White Flag” was sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for more than $20 million. In 2006, his “False Start” sold for $80 million—the highest price ever paid for a painting by a living artist.

In 1990, Johns was awarded the National Medal of Arts. He is represented by the Matthew Marks Gallery in New York City, and in the spring 2008, a ten-year retrospective of his drawings were mounted there.
The National Gallery of Art acquired about 1,700 of Johns' proofs in 2007. This made the Gallery home to the largest number of Johns' works held by a single institution. The exhibition showed works from many points in Johns' career, including recent proofs of his prints.

Jasper Johns is one of America’s most successful and influential contemporary artists. His paintings and prints, often incorporating objects and symbols from popular culture, inspired a new generation of artists and laid the groundwork for the Pop Art movement.

Johns currently lives in Sharon, Connecticut and the Island of Saint Martin

“To be an artist you have to give up everything,
including the desire to be a good artist.”