Jasper Johns Et Al

WORKS BY JASPER JOHNS and CY TWOMBLY, JOHN CAGE, MERCE CUNNINGHAM and OTHERS

If you want to collect Jasper Johns’ paintings it helps if you wrote Jurassic Park, or created E.R., fortunately Johns’ printmaking and sense of play means there is a wide range of work by Johns and his contemporaries that are (that worst of all words) affordable.

Jasper Johns emerged as major force in the American art scene when the contemporary arts community was seeking a way to move beyond the pure emotion of Abstract Expressionism. The simplicity and familiarity of the subject matter generated interest in Johns’ motivation and his process. Johns explains, “There may or may not be an idea, and the meaning may just be that the work exists.”

It was Johns’ interest in process led him to printmaking. For Johns, printmaking was a medium that encouraged experimentation through the ease with which it allowed for repeat endeavours. Often he would make counterpart prints to his paintings. He says, “My experience of life is that it’s very fragmented; certain kinds of things happen, and in another place, a different kind of thing occurs. I would like my work to have some vivid indication of those differences.” His innovations in screen-printing, lithography, and etching have revolutionised the field.

Collaboration was an important part in advancing Johns’ own art, and he worked regularly with a number of other artists. While working together creating window displays for Tiffany’s, Johns and Robert Rauschenberg explored the New York art scene, meeting not only artists such as Cy Twombly and Bruce Nauman, but also the composer John Cage and the choreographer Merce Cunningham.

This exhibition will show a range of prints, artists’ posters and artists’ books. It will also feature ephemera and performance videos that are intended to give the visitor an insight and appreciation of the range of John’s work and the importance of his collaborations.