Jasper Johns, Untitled, 2016. Collection Walker Art Center, gift of the artist, 2017. © Jasper Johns/VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

When Jasper Johns’s paintings of flags and targets debuted in 1958, they brought him instant acclaim and established him as a critical link between Abstract Expressionism and Pop art. In the ensuing 60 years, Johns has continued to astonish viewers with the beauty and complexity of his paintings, drawings, sculpture, and prints. Today, he is considered one of the 20th century’s greatest American artists.

Jasper Johns, Target, 1974 © Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Jasper Johns, Flags, 1967–1968 © Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Jasper Johns, Flags I, 1973. Collection Walker Art Center, Gift of Judy and Kenneth Dayton, 1988. ©Jasper Johns/VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

Jasper Johns, Skin with O’Hara Poem, 1963–1965. Collection Walker Art Center, Gift of Judy and Kenneth Dayton, 1988. ©Jasper Johns and U.L.A.E./VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY Published by Universal Limited Art Editions.

Jasper Johns, Untitled 1988 © Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Jasper Johns, Savarin, 1977 © Jasper Johns / VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

Jasper Johns, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, from Seasons, 1987 / Printed and published by Universal Limited Art Editions, Inc. © Jasper Johns / VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

In celebration of the artist’s 90th birthday, An Art of Changes surveys six decades of Johns’s practice in printmaking, highlighting his experiments with familiar, abstract, and personal imagery that play with memory and visual perception in endlessly original ways. The exhibition features some 90 works in intaglio, lithography, woodcut, linoleum cut, screen printing, and lead relief – all drawn from the Walker’s comprehensive collection of the artist’s prints.

Exhibition view, Photo Bobby Rogers, Walker Art Center

Exhibition view, Photo Bobby Rogers, Walker Art Center

Exhibition view, Photo Bobby Rogers, Walker Art Center

Exhibition view, Photo Bobby Rogers, Walker Art Center

Exhibition view, Photo Bobby Rogers, Walker Art Center

Organized in four thematic sections, the exhibition follows Johns through the years as he revises and recycles key motifs over time, including the American flag, numerals, and the English alphabet, which he describes as “things the mind already knows.” Some works explore artists’ tools, materials, and techniques. Others explore signature aspects of the artist’s distinctive mark-making, including flagstones and hatch marks, while later pieces teem with autobiographical imagery. To underscore Johns’s fascination with the changes that occur when an image is reworked in another medium, the prints will be augmented by a small selection of paintings and sculptures.

An Art of Changes: Jasper Johns Prints, 1960–2018
February 16 – September 20, 2020 / Walker Art Center
Curator: Joan Rothfuss, guest curator, Visual Arts
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