Sunday, April 11, 2010

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.”

20 comments:

prairiegirl said...

Can't wait to read this spotlight, Special. I see artwork!

Okay, got it up. Boy, what a struggle LJ is lately. It took me at least 6-7 tries to get that picture to take.

Hey Destiny!! Good to see you.

Interesting how Sophin is being received on an OTH forum. See, they're not fooling anyone. I don't know what they're thinking.

We had to go to Toys R Us to return my Legos since my niece already had it. They have a very good Toys R Us here. She gave the Prince of Persia Legos a thumbs up and told me that it will get its own little glass/plexiglass display case as it becomes more well known. "Ohhhhh, okay. I see how that works."

m said...

Another informative spotlight, as usual.

PG,last night as I was rereading an old slash I wondered what was up with The Tenderfoot and there it was this AM. Thanks.

We've got less than 60 days now to POP so the bearding light and linking Jake to any woman within 50 feet of him should subside shortly thereafter. I am still not convinced that it is Austin behind the effort to link him with Sophia but rather a concerted effort by Jake is straighters (and maybe the CW to keep OTH looking hot) to push their agenda. It just does not look professional, like it is an amateur's effort.

I wonder why Austin stopped blogging. I do miss reading his posts.

destiny said...

I wonder if OTH didn't want Austin blogging on an ex-OTH actor's site, particulary one seen as kind of the heart of OTH?

Special K said...

This was posted on a fashion forum about seeing Jake in Montreal yesterday. There was a tweet that got posted yesterday from another about seeing Jake at the same restaurant yesterday too.

Spotted Jake in the Old Port of Montreal, QC yesterday(Sat) afternoon dressed in black and his wayfarers looking so gorgeous
it was cool, cause it was so low key, he was with a woman and another guy his age. Apparently he's been at this bakery/lunch spot, Olive and Gourmando, nearly every day since he's been here and i just happened to be there and saw him outside as i was leaving. i gotta admit it was pretty cool and Montreal is so awesome cause there were no paparazzi and no one was bothering him, i'm not even sure anyone else was noticing he was there, so he was able to just walk around casually, like anyone else.


Fashion Spot

m said...

Good point Destiny about OTH not wanting Austin to blog. Southern Gothic is Hilary's site and I think things did not end amicably. Salary was the issue I believe.

pic said...

Does anyone know if this guy is Jake's PA? I ask because he is in these set of pictures. At first I thought that he was just part of the crew but there was a twicpic a few weeks back of Jake at some cafe in Montreal and I'm pretty sure it was this guy though he was standing next to him. He also is seen in the background in the set pics from Friday and is seen in some go-cart with Jake after the shoot and iyt looks like the same guy, from the back anyway. It appears that he may be his BG in Montreal although he doesn't really look the type:

http://www.imagebam.com/image/0d06c771633093

WoW said...

Hooray! Fantastic OutSpotlight today. :)

GamerLiveTV interview said...

Posted on WDW

Jake talks about living in a tent with Daniel Day-Lewis :)

Wondercon 2010: Prince of Persia Jake Gyllenhaal Movie Interview

ollie said...

Something wrong with the link. It gives me another window like this one. Can you post the link again?

prairiegirl said...

Really interesting spotlight. I had no idea paintings went for so much money.

Long day. Looks like everyone's worn themselves out, lol.

reason why hardly any comments said...

Blogger was out for many hours on Sunday.

Jake said...

In 2006, his “False Start” sold for $80 million

I'm in the wrong profession!

youtube said...

Wondercon 2010: Prince of Persia Jake Gyllenhaal Movie Interview

GamerLiveTV interview said...

Something wrong with the link.

Oops, sorry!

LAOD said...

We Can't Wait: LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS

Hello, everybody. It's JA from MNPP offering up my poor lil' orphaned movie that nobody wants to see but me. Sad face.

Love and Other Drugs
Directed by: Edward Zwick
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, Judy Greer, Oliver Platt, Hank Azaria

Synopsis: Based on Jamie Reidy's memoir Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman, this is the movie that brings the world Jake Gyllenhaal hawking boner pills and wearing a crotch merkin whilst romping with Annie again. Brokeback reunion, yo!

Brought to you by: 20th Century Fox
Expected release date: Nothing solid yet but it seems like a late September-ish movie, doesn't it?

Honestly I was sold the minute I heard "Jake Gyllenhaal" and "Viagra" in the same sentence. And then he went on Jimmy Kimmel and talked about all the naked rolling around he was doing with Annie and my expectations pretty much took the natural path unto the stratosphere from there.

But in looking up more info on the film so I could say something more than "Jake Gyllenhaal and boner jokes!" I discovered a couple of things. Firstly that Judy Greer's in the film, and I've expressed my love for Miss Greer here at The Film Experience just recently.

And secondly, they're via IMDb so who knows if they're plants but I read a couple of early reviews of the film (spoilers at the link) and wowza it sounds fun. I'm not much of a Zwick fan really but this is so different from the mopey serious dramas he's been telling for ages now so who knows what's in store?

Oh and Annie's playing Parkinsons. Could there be a nomination in there, or will the film be too silly for that? Anybody read the book?

Film Experience

ted said...

Dear Ted:
I have to agree it's a double standard to "out" Jesse and Tiger, for instance, for their sexual peccadilloes but not Toothy, etc. But it was the pieces on the side, so to speak, that went to the media. Does that mean very few of the side dishes for Toothy-type celebs go to the media? Or the media isn't interested? Wouldn't it be interesting if gay lovers ended up being more, well, tight-lipped than their straight counterparts?
—J

Dear Tough One:
No, the media would definitely be interested. 'Tho payoffs and confidentiality agreements here and there have helped prevent it. Usually it's the side-dishes that won't or are not allowed to speak. You know how Stud-Bucket LeBeouf carries around confidentiality agreements when he steps out on his wife? Well, Toothy and the gay gang are 10 times more cautious when they do their naughty acts.

Dear Ted:
I know you say most of us have no idea how much of Hollywood is really gay. But I'm curious, is as much of Hollywood insatiably bisexual? I hate to think us homos have no chance whatsoever!
—The heat

Dear Positive Thinking:
Sure, a lot of Hollywood is bisexual. That means you have a fabo shot then, no?

Bitch Back

Naomi in Montreal said...

Jake Gyllenhaal Shares a Sweet Sunday Brunch With His Mom

Jake Gyllenhaal had yesterday afternoon off from working on Source Code in Montreal, and he was able to have a stroll and a meal with his mom Naomi Foner. The duo headed off to grab lunch at the city's Olive et Gourmando, where Jake's ex Kirsten Dunst, who's in town filming Upside Down, was coincidentally eating with friends. Jake's in Canada as production on his movie continues after a few days in Chicago. Jake should get used to the traveling, though, since he'll be doing lots of it in the run up to Prince of Persia's release. He got a head start on the promotional last weekend with a stop in San Francisco for WonderCon, where we caught up with him and he shared the inside info on his Oscars night with Rachel McAdams.

popsugar

pinky ring said...

Yesterday the TV show ‘on the red carpet’ had a brief interview with Jake from the San Fran Con, and in a part he touched his face and neck and the pinky ring was in close up.

No shit sherlock said...

Zzzzzzzzz

ring said...

the pinky ring was in close up

Is it one of BBMt promotion time pinky rings?