Jasper JOHNS (born in 1930)
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
Chronology : 1957 1959 1960 1979 1983 1986
Chronology : 1957 1959 1960 1979 1983 1986
masterpiece
1954-1955 Flag
MoMA
Artistic creation has no limits in New York in 1954. Very young artists endeavor to reject into the past the Abstract Expressionism that was yet barely ten years old.
After meeting Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, aged 24, had one of the most effective intuitions of modern art. Duchamp had introduced the ready mades in artistic creation. In an extension from Malevich, not only the canvas is an object but also the paint and the theme are objects.
The three saturated colors of the American flag are to Johns an incentive for new art. His flags identical to the official pieces will be painted on all kinds of materials including newspapers and actual flags.
Like Cézanne, he works within the contours as in a cloisonné. Unlike Pollock and Rothko, the first meticulous gesture must be the right one. Any dripping is therefore intentional, which requires a fast drying : Johns painted in wax.
In his artistic vision, that theme of the US flag enables to offer to the public a familiar theme without falling into a hermetic abstraction.
Leo Castelli understands how much the art can be changed by this innovation. Favoring the material instead of shape and color, Johns comes in the follow of Burri. He anticipates Manzoni's achromes and Ryder's white on white while his treatment of a recognizable object is announcing the pop art by Warhol and Lichtenstein.
After meeting Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, aged 24, had one of the most effective intuitions of modern art. Duchamp had introduced the ready mades in artistic creation. In an extension from Malevich, not only the canvas is an object but also the paint and the theme are objects.
The three saturated colors of the American flag are to Johns an incentive for new art. His flags identical to the official pieces will be painted on all kinds of materials including newspapers and actual flags.
Like Cézanne, he works within the contours as in a cloisonné. Unlike Pollock and Rothko, the first meticulous gesture must be the right one. Any dripping is therefore intentional, which requires a fast drying : Johns painted in wax.
In his artistic vision, that theme of the US flag enables to offer to the public a familiar theme without falling into a hermetic abstraction.
Leo Castelli understands how much the art can be changed by this innovation. Favoring the material instead of shape and color, Johns comes in the follow of Burri. He anticipates Manzoni's achromes and Ryder's white on white while his treatment of a recognizable object is announcing the pop art by Warhol and Lichtenstein.
1957 Gray Rectangles
2018 SOLD for $ 21M by Christie's
The world is changing and art will have to change as well. The work of art does not need to be figurative, nor to tell a story, nor to confront colors, and must not be a mere decoration. Young artists rediscover their prophets : the ready made by Duchamp, the assassination of the painting by Miro, the black square on white by Malevich, the path to the monochrome by Barnett Newman.
In 1957, more or less independently of one another, new teams destroy the differentiation between painting and sculpture, replace canvas and paper by ordinary materials, integrate objects into their works, attempt an abstract interpretation of poetry. These creators are named Burri, Fontana, Klein, Rauschenberg, Johns, Twombly, Cornell.
Jasper Johns conceals signs under a gray encaustic. Pigments bring a variety of texture into this neutral monochrome. Gray Numbers, 71 x 59 cm, was sold for $ 8.7M by Sotheby's on November 11, 2009.
Gray Rectangles, 152 x 152 cm made in 1957, was sold for $ 21M by Christie's on November 13, 2018, lot 19 B estimated $ 18M. Three aligned rectangles had been painted in the bottom of the image respectively in red, yellow and blue. Hidden under the wax, these three colors have left a lingering trace, turning this gray monochrome into a mysterious picture.
This large-scale artwork appears as seminal of this new art and its provenance is prestigious. It was bought in 1964 by Ganz to Castelli and in 1988 by Ebsworth in the auction at Sotheby's of the Ganz collection.
In 1957, more or less independently of one another, new teams destroy the differentiation between painting and sculpture, replace canvas and paper by ordinary materials, integrate objects into their works, attempt an abstract interpretation of poetry. These creators are named Burri, Fontana, Klein, Rauschenberg, Johns, Twombly, Cornell.
Jasper Johns conceals signs under a gray encaustic. Pigments bring a variety of texture into this neutral monochrome. Gray Numbers, 71 x 59 cm, was sold for $ 8.7M by Sotheby's on November 11, 2009.
Gray Rectangles, 152 x 152 cm made in 1957, was sold for $ 21M by Christie's on November 13, 2018, lot 19 B estimated $ 18M. Three aligned rectangles had been painted in the bottom of the image respectively in red, yellow and blue. Hidden under the wax, these three colors have left a lingering trace, turning this gray monochrome into a mysterious picture.
This large-scale artwork appears as seminal of this new art and its provenance is prestigious. It was bought in 1964 by Ganz to Castelli and in 1988 by Ebsworth in the auction at Sotheby's of the Ganz collection.
1959 Figure 4
2007 SOLD for $ 17.4M by Christie's
Jasper Johns bases his early art on figures that are immediately familiar to every US people : the US flag, the concentric target and from 1955 the Arabic numerals in single figures or in various configurations of rows and columns, executed in a creamy white encaustic over a newspaper collage.
Figure 4 features a beautiful full size 4 mingled with its surrounding of bright primary colors painted in 1959 in the style of the False Start of the same year. This oil, encaustic and collage on canvas 51 x 39 cm was sold for $ 17.4M by Christie's on May 16, 2007, lot 25.
From ca 1960 he achieves a quasi abstract expression by superimposing the ten numerals in a single size and centering. Between 1960 and 1961, he made eleven paintings, one sculpture and two drawings, invariably titled 0 through 9. The unique 1961 drawing, charcoal and pastel on paper 137 x 106 cm was sold for $ 10.9M by Sotheby's on November 9, 2004, lot 25. In this magma of hat final state the numerals have lost all their individual meaning.
Figure 4 features a beautiful full size 4 mingled with its surrounding of bright primary colors painted in 1959 in the style of the False Start of the same year. This oil, encaustic and collage on canvas 51 x 39 cm was sold for $ 17.4M by Christie's on May 16, 2007, lot 25.
From ca 1960 he achieves a quasi abstract expression by superimposing the ten numerals in a single size and centering. Between 1960 and 1961, he made eleven paintings, one sculpture and two drawings, invariably titled 0 through 9. The unique 1961 drawing, charcoal and pastel on paper 137 x 106 cm was sold for $ 10.9M by Sotheby's on November 9, 2004, lot 25. In this magma of hat final state the numerals have lost all their individual meaning.
False Start
Intro
In the mid 1950s, young artists around Robert Rauschenberg redefine the meaning of art. Jasper Johns and Cy Twombly, who both were Rauschenberg's lovers, respectively explore the triviality of the message and the proto-writing, which are actually two variants within the same trend.
Johns does not compose, he reuses. The flags, targets, numbers and letters that appear altogether early in his career have no meaning and do not bring any emotion. He welcomes the colors as codified before him and this is the deep significance of his use of the US flag wrongly regarded as a patriotic expression.
To master the absence of message, Johns should control the material. He uses as early as 1954 a thick encaustic wax that dries quickly enough so that a new supply does not alter the previous layers. His brushstroke is indeed an opposite to Kline's action painting.
These young artists soon featured by Castelli reject the expressionism and are not concerned in the pop art in the sense of their contemporaries Lichtenstein and Warhol. Their movement is sometimes called Neo-Dadaism.
The False Start series of three works was started in 1959 to display colors with wrong labels. For example the word GRAY is painted in red stenciled letters on a patch of yellow, and so on. It is indeed a false start in the sense of horse racing and arguably reflects a doubt of Johns in his own art. The burst of blowing colors in nervous brushstrokes may include hidden numerals. After the predetermined colors of the Flag, it is indeed a way conceived by Johns to become abstract.
Johns does not compose, he reuses. The flags, targets, numbers and letters that appear altogether early in his career have no meaning and do not bring any emotion. He welcomes the colors as codified before him and this is the deep significance of his use of the US flag wrongly regarded as a patriotic expression.
To master the absence of message, Johns should control the material. He uses as early as 1954 a thick encaustic wax that dries quickly enough so that a new supply does not alter the previous layers. His brushstroke is indeed an opposite to Kline's action painting.
These young artists soon featured by Castelli reject the expressionism and are not concerned in the pop art in the sense of their contemporaries Lichtenstein and Warhol. Their movement is sometimes called Neo-Dadaism.
The False Start series of three works was started in 1959 to display colors with wrong labels. For example the word GRAY is painted in red stenciled letters on a patch of yellow, and so on. It is indeed a false start in the sense of horse racing and arguably reflects a doubt of Johns in his own art. The burst of blowing colors in nervous brushstrokes may include hidden numerals. After the predetermined colors of the Flag, it is indeed a way conceived by Johns to become abstract.
1
1959
1988 SOLD for $ 17M by Sotheby's
A Fall Start in large version 170 x 132 cm executed in 1959 by Johns was sold for $ 17M by Sotheby's on November 10, 1988 and privately purchased for a reported $ 80M by Ken Griffin to David Geffen in October 2006.
2
1960 small
2022 SOLD for $ 55M by Christie's
A small False Start, encaustic and acrylic made of overlapping or disjointed collages of torn papers on raw fiberboard 56 x 46 cm executed in 1960, was sold for $ 55M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 30 in the sale of the Paul G. Allen collection. Allen was amazed by the new kinds of language in Johns's art and viewed his Numerals as a precursor of digital art.
1960-1966 Flag
2010 SOLD for $ 28.6M by Christie's
Jasper Johns' Flags had been the first icons of Pop Art that terminated the dominance of the Abstract Expressionism of Pollock, Rothko and de Kooning and opened the gates to the consumerist images of Warhol and Lichtenstein."
Castelli owned until his death in 1999 a Flag executed by Johns in 1958. It was sold in private sale by his sonto Steve Cohen in March 2010. Details were not released but the price of $ 110M has not been denied.
A Flag painted between 1960 and 1966 was sold by Christie's for $ 28.6M on May 11, 2010. Measuring 43 x 66 cm, it is twice smaller than the Castelli-Cohen specimen.
The technique of encaustic and newspaper on canvas creates a unique texture to these works, such as to fascinate the observer as much as a Rothko can do.
Castelli owned until his death in 1999 a Flag executed by Johns in 1958. It was sold in private sale by his sonto Steve Cohen in March 2010. Details were not released but the price of $ 110M has not been denied.
A Flag painted between 1960 and 1966 was sold by Christie's for $ 28.6M on May 11, 2010. Measuring 43 x 66 cm, it is twice smaller than the Castelli-Cohen specimen.
The technique of encaustic and newspaper on canvas creates a unique texture to these works, such as to fascinate the observer as much as a Rothko can do.
1968 Aluminum Numbers
2022 SOLD for $ 17.6M by Christie's
In his quest for the emotionally disengaged roots of art, Jasper Johns relied from the mid 1950s on non-naturalistic figures : the US flag, the target and the sequence of numbers. He tried his hand with a high variety of paints and supports, including plaster relief for a target as early as 1955.
His first experiences with grids had been made in 1952. From 1958, 0-9 features the 10 numerals as a grid of 2 rows and 5 columns in the normal sequence.
In 1964 he was commissioned for a monumental grid of numbers for the use of the lobby of the theater of the Lincoln Center in Manhattan. This work titled Numbers is made of separate painted metal panels of one numeral each, bolted together for an overall size of 275 x 213 cm. Sequences of numerals are a path to infinity when considering that they can build unlimited numbers. A footprint of Merce Cunningham superseded a numeral toward the upper right corner of that original.
Johns's project to complement the Lincoln Numbers by a bronze failed in 1968. An aluminum variant of Numbers, 146 x 110 cm in gray, was cast in the same year. It displays a grid of 11 rows and 11 columns in the normal sequence 0-9 of the numerals so that each next row or column begins with the next numeral. The stenciled numerals had been taken from a commercially available set.
The artist kept the aluminum Numbers until he sold it to Paul G. Allen in 2001. From that collection, it was sold for $ 17.6M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 49.
Johns acted as artistic advisor to Cunningham’s dance company from 1967 to 1980,
Johns resumed in 2008 the project of number sequences in bronze, aluminum, silver, and copper. 0-9 with Merce's Footprint is a bronze 49 x 94 x 1.9 cm , cast in 2009 in an edition of 3 in different patinas. Cunningham's footprint is a new version. It does not have a separate block but is integrated with any numeral.
His first experiences with grids had been made in 1952. From 1958, 0-9 features the 10 numerals as a grid of 2 rows and 5 columns in the normal sequence.
In 1964 he was commissioned for a monumental grid of numbers for the use of the lobby of the theater of the Lincoln Center in Manhattan. This work titled Numbers is made of separate painted metal panels of one numeral each, bolted together for an overall size of 275 x 213 cm. Sequences of numerals are a path to infinity when considering that they can build unlimited numbers. A footprint of Merce Cunningham superseded a numeral toward the upper right corner of that original.
Johns's project to complement the Lincoln Numbers by a bronze failed in 1968. An aluminum variant of Numbers, 146 x 110 cm in gray, was cast in the same year. It displays a grid of 11 rows and 11 columns in the normal sequence 0-9 of the numerals so that each next row or column begins with the next numeral. The stenciled numerals had been taken from a commercially available set.
The artist kept the aluminum Numbers until he sold it to Paul G. Allen in 2001. From that collection, it was sold for $ 17.6M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 49.
Johns acted as artistic advisor to Cunningham’s dance company from 1967 to 1980,
Johns resumed in 2008 the project of number sequences in bronze, aluminum, silver, and copper. 0-9 with Merce's Footprint is a bronze 49 x 94 x 1.9 cm , cast in 2009 in an edition of 3 in different patinas. Cunningham's footprint is a new version. It does not have a separate block but is integrated with any numeral.
1979-1981 Usuyuki
2022 SOLD for $ 11.8M by Christie's
After his signature pseudo-figurative themes which were the US flag, the target, the map and the numbers, Jasper Johns added from 1972 the crosshatch in repetitive patterns. This technical figure was used by artists to display the shades in their prints.
Not so far from the op art, Johns's hatches are bringing a shimmering effect on a flat surface.
Some of them were titled Usuyuki, a Japanese word meaning light snow, probably inspired by his frequent stays and exhibitions in Tokyo.
The artist stated his deep interest for the lack of figurative meaning of the hatch. As usual the observers tried to find a secret code which probably never existed, in the follow of the search for patriotism in the US flags by the same artist.
A Usuyuki dated 1979-81 by the artist was sold for $ 11.8M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 57.
It is made of a triptych of oil on canvases assembled on an artist's frame 75 x 125 cm that provides a separation between the panels. Its icy blues and snowflake whites in oil are accompanied by passages in stormy gray charcoal plus traces of the warm colors of the rainbow. Single sized circles were added like footprints in the snow.
The Cicada series of three pictures of cross hatched figures is revealing the conception of Jasper Johns with that fully abstract themes. The hatched elements intersect together like a kaleidoscope so that the viewer cannot find an overlapping coherence of the whole composition. Hatchings are made at all angles from vertical to horizontal.
Some subtle coherences nevertheless exist as demonstrated by a 1978 sketch annotated by the artist. There is an absolute similarity of the sequence of colors between the left and right edges, and another one between the upper and lower edges. The three primary colors are reversed to the three secondary from center to edges of a fictive central vertical which displays the six colors.
Cicada may be a reference to the hatched patterns of the wings of that insect. It is instead considered as evoking the vibrations that produce its special buzz. Other possible titles that were not chosen included Locust and Husk.
A Cicada, oil on canvas 76 x 57 cm painted in 1979, was sold for $ 6.8M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 12A.
Not so far from the op art, Johns's hatches are bringing a shimmering effect on a flat surface.
Some of them were titled Usuyuki, a Japanese word meaning light snow, probably inspired by his frequent stays and exhibitions in Tokyo.
The artist stated his deep interest for the lack of figurative meaning of the hatch. As usual the observers tried to find a secret code which probably never existed, in the follow of the search for patriotism in the US flags by the same artist.
A Usuyuki dated 1979-81 by the artist was sold for $ 11.8M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 57.
It is made of a triptych of oil on canvases assembled on an artist's frame 75 x 125 cm that provides a separation between the panels. Its icy blues and snowflake whites in oil are accompanied by passages in stormy gray charcoal plus traces of the warm colors of the rainbow. Single sized circles were added like footprints in the snow.
The Cicada series of three pictures of cross hatched figures is revealing the conception of Jasper Johns with that fully abstract themes. The hatched elements intersect together like a kaleidoscope so that the viewer cannot find an overlapping coherence of the whole composition. Hatchings are made at all angles from vertical to horizontal.
Some subtle coherences nevertheless exist as demonstrated by a 1978 sketch annotated by the artist. There is an absolute similarity of the sequence of colors between the left and right edges, and another one between the upper and lower edges. The three primary colors are reversed to the three secondary from center to edges of a fictive central vertical which displays the six colors.
Cicada may be a reference to the hatched patterns of the wings of that insect. It is instead considered as evoking the vibrations that produce its special buzz. Other possible titles that were not chosen included Locust and Husk.
A Cicada, oil on canvas 76 x 57 cm painted in 1979, was sold for $ 6.8M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 12A.
later Flags
1
1983 flag on silk flag
2014 SOLD for $ 36M by Sotheby's
On November 11, 2014, Sotheby's sold for $ 36M from a lower estimate of $ 15M a small Flag 30 x 45 cm by Jasper Johns, lot 9.
Painted in 1983, it is a rare example of encaustic painting on an actual silk flag mounted on canvas. Its regular configuration in 6 rows of 8 stars was obsolete since 1959, confirming that the process of Johns is much more artistic than patriotic.
Painted in 1983, it is a rare example of encaustic painting on an actual silk flag mounted on canvas. Its regular configuration in 6 rows of 8 stars was obsolete since 1959, confirming that the process of Johns is much more artistic than patriotic.
2
1986 double flag
2023 SOLD for $ 41M by Sotheby's
A Double flag painted in oil and encaustic wax on canvas 65 x 84 cm by Jasper Johns in 1986 was sold for $ 41M by Sotheby's on November 8, 2023, lot 6 in the sale of the Fisher Landau collection.
The two flags are side by side and rotated to vertical in this picture. They are identical and parallel in a reverted position of the star block, with the 50 stars of the current US flag in application since 1960.
As usual in this series, the brushstrokes are left in the rough for inviting to a re-interpretation of the basic meaning of art and creation. Traces of orange, green and yellow are added to the official red, blue and white of a pristine US flag.
In a nearly lifelong obsession with his breakthrough image, Johns painted his 26th and last Flag opus on canvas in 2014.
The two flags are side by side and rotated to vertical in this picture. They are identical and parallel in a reverted position of the star block, with the 50 stars of the current US flag in application since 1960.
As usual in this series, the brushstrokes are left in the rough for inviting to a re-interpretation of the basic meaning of art and creation. Traces of orange, green and yellow are added to the official red, blue and white of a pristine US flag.
In a nearly lifelong obsession with his breakthrough image, Johns painted his 26th and last Flag opus on canvas in 2014.
3
1994 gray flag
2018 SOLD for $ 13M by Sotheby's
A Flag painted by Jasper Johns in 1994, 40 years after the master model, appears as a synthesis of his lifelong intuitions.
The colors have been removed. In 1957 in Gray rectangles, the three primary colors had not been canceled below the gray. That work was sold for $ 21M by Christie's in 2018. In art history, such a palimpsest comes between Pollock and Richter.
The readability of the theme had appeared as the trademark of the artist. For the Numerals it had been fully canceled in a full gray 0 to 9 executed in 1961, sold for $ 10.9M by Sotheby's in 2004.
The artist undeniably enjoyed his palette of shimmering hues of gray. In the 1994 Flag all other colors are absent but the stars and stripes remain visible. This acrylic and graphite on canvas 32 x 50 cm was sold for $ 13M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2018, lot 32.
The colors have been removed. In 1957 in Gray rectangles, the three primary colors had not been canceled below the gray. That work was sold for $ 21M by Christie's in 2018. In art history, such a palimpsest comes between Pollock and Richter.
The readability of the theme had appeared as the trademark of the artist. For the Numerals it had been fully canceled in a full gray 0 to 9 executed in 1961, sold for $ 10.9M by Sotheby's in 2004.
The artist undeniably enjoyed his palette of shimmering hues of gray. In the 1994 Flag all other colors are absent but the stars and stripes remain visible. This acrylic and graphite on canvas 32 x 50 cm was sold for $ 13M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2018, lot 32.
