English
An exhibition of the work of Jasper Johns, one of the most important artists of the the second half of the 20th century, will be at Valencia´s IVAM from February, through April 24th. The retrospective, “The Huellas of Memory” comprises 40 works of painting, sculpture, and pieces using signs, letters and numbers. Along with Robert Rauschenberg, Johns was a precursor of the North American Pop Art movement.
Jasper Johns was born in Georgia, U.S in 1930. After spending a year at the University of Carolina, he transferred to Parsons School of Design in New York, where he met Robert Rauschenberg, Merce Cunningham and John Cage, and started to develop his style.
Johns’ prolific and eclectic work has passed through various art movements of the 20th century. Though identified as a member of the Pop Art group, for his early works with the North American flag, his use of unorthodox materials also places his at the fringes of Dadaism. There’s also a clear influence of the American abstract expressionism of the 40s and 50s, cubism, and even the German expressionism of the early 20th century. Hence the importance of Jasper Johns’ work.
In 1952 he was called up for the Korean war, an experience that marks a particular stage of his artistic development which was centred around detailed paintings of the North American flag, upon which images were superimposed, and numbers and letters formed the title “Flag.” This period of flags, numbers and letters ended in the 1960s, when he discovered Marcel Duchamp’s Ready Made, and started to make bronze moulds of simple, every day objects.
Johns’ methodical style of working combines experimentation with his obsession with the perfection of simple objects. He places objects in a pictorial context, adding colour and texture – though unlike the Dadists, the use of objects is not fundamental to his work. One can identify the influence of the abstract expressionism of Pollock and Rothko.
In the mid-60s, his work started to take on a more abstract form, appearing for the first time the influence of urban art and murals, and grafitti.
Johns has been attending the Venice Bienale since 1958, when he showed his work for the first time, and MOMA bought two pieces, with contemporary North American art garnering increasingly more attention from Europe. In 1988, he won an award at Venice for the work “Four Stations.”
In 2010, “Flag” sold for 28.6 million dollars at Christies, New York, beating Andy Warhol’s Silver Liz painting, which went for 18.3 million – both paintings are icons of the Pop Art movement.
Nancy Guzman
Come and experience this great exhibition at the IVAM, and enjoy some free time at one of the rented apartments in Valencia
Translated by: Poppy
