Jasper Johns; Two Page Review

          Jasper Johns is an American artist who grew up in a small town in South Carolina. He is one of the most influential artists of all time. His art is very abstract, asking more questions than actually answering them, with the meaning of his art never clear. It is said that his art is “sophisticated or unsophisticated version of finger painting.” His abstract art makes everyday things stand out. He has been compared to Rembrandt. Johns’ art works with the idea of ambiguity, forcing his audience to think and figure out his art.

Johns works with ordinary images, such as numbers and with unique brush strokes and bright colors he makes them into abstract pieces of art.

     The first piece of art above is called “Numbers in Colors” painted in the years of 1958 to 1959. This image takes ordinary numbers with a combination of oranges, light teals, reds and yellows and represents them as something more than just numbers. Then there is the image to the right, simply called Maps that was painted in 1961. This painting is clear to be an abstract version of a map. With bold brush strokes of the primary colors, red, blue and yellow he portrays a version of the map of the United States.  These are some examples of Jasper Johns’ artwork that depict ordinary images made into abstract pieces of artwork.

            There however are other versions of Johns’ abstract art. He sometimes combines different well-known images and his own art to make a new piece of art. An example of this is “Racing Thoughts” which he did in 1984.

With this piece of art, Johns said that he saw images racing through his head that he could not get out until he got them onto a canvas. Johns made a set of paintings called “The Seasons” done in 1987.

These paintings did not necessarily portray the seasons of the year but the seasons of life. Such as youth, maturity, old age and so on.  These pieces of art by Jasper Johns show that his artwork is very deep, however, no one can really figure out what is means.

            Personally I do like Jasper Johns’ art. Even though it is unsure the meaning of his art, the images that he creates in the end are very fascinating. Johns knows how you use every medium, making him a very versatile artist. I have never been fond of abstract art, because a lot of it I do not believe is actually art. However, the art that Johns does is not something that you cannot tell what it is, it is understandable and recognizable. Without the meaning being clear, he has created ambiguity that makes his artwork stand out in that special way.

            Jasper Johns is a modern artist with a very unique style. He does work that does not always make sense, but has a lot of different meanings to it. He tries to make his audience figure out his work, and does a very good job about this. He has had some of the highest selling modern artwork today. Jasper Johns is amazing at making his artwork distinguish itself from others and is original with every piece he does.