Jasper Johns

Jasper Johns was born in Augusta, Georgia, in 1930, and attended art school for such a brief time that he is generally considered a self-taught artist. In 1954 Johns painted his first American flag, the first in a series of iconic and impersonal paintings that also included alphabets and targets. He soon began to incorporate cast reliefs in his works and to make sculptures; and in 1960 he began his involvement with printmaking, often reworking the imagery of his paintings. Throughout the late 1950s and ‘60s, Johns was closely associated with Robert Rauschenberg, who had a studio in the same building in New York. He also occasionally collaborated with composer John Cage and dancer Merce Cunningham, and was strongly influenced by the writings of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. In the early '70s, Johns created a series of paintings composed of short, straight brushstrokes arranged in schematic patterns of cross-hatching (Untitled, 1972; Cologne, Museum Ludwig). In the early '80s, Johns began to incorporate personal references in his work (Racing Thoughts, 1983; New York, Whitney Museum of American Art). As his work became more personalized, Johns became less identified with other artists or movements such as Pop Art or Minimalism and his work was seen as more self-referential.