Jasper Johns1958/59

A few questions from the reading from Art Since 1900 on 1958/1959:

1.) How do Jasper Johns' emblems "evoke a self that was divided by its own language?"

Background: Jasper Johns painted everyday symbols--a target, an American flag--in opposition to the Abstract Expressionists for whom representation (and worse popular emblems) was taboo. Having a subject, especially one so popularized, the Ab-Ex artists argue, depersonalizes the work, and painting is taken out of its pure state (painting which is simply about painting in and of itself).

The reading describes Jasper Johns work as a play with contradiction and paradox. First of all, the emblem of a flag or a target is both abstract and representational--abstract because they are composed of simple geometric shapes, a circle, a rectangle; representational because they are easily recognizable as a whole.

Encaustics also play a major role in Jasper Johns' style. The wax preserves the artist's brushstrokes, showing method and giving a gestural motion to the painting, (this quality would be desired by the Ab-Ex painter) and yet the strokes become repetitive, dead, lifeless; bringing us back to the impersonal aspect of the work.

The subject matter also has qualities of both the personal and the impersonal. Because the emblems are so easily recognizable, something society as a whole can relate to, they appear extremely impersonal at first glance. However, the flag also alludes to the story that the symbol first appeared to Johns in a dream. Thus, his paintings suggest allegory/alternated meanings/suggested memories. The complication of describing Johns in terms of a movement reiterates the fact that the artist feels divided within himself. His art reflects a paradoxical struggle.

2.)What sets Jasper Johns apart from the Dada movement (or any other movement)?

It is important to know that Jasper Johns was aquainted with Duchamp when considering his label as the "Neo-Dadaist." However, Johns' work does not carry the self-destructive, anarchic theory of Dada. He is more interested in the irony conveyed by Duchamp's work (again we're dealing with paradox here). Duchamp remain a point of reference for Johns, but only for this reason. Johns is not destroying the symbol, he is elevating it to high art by giving it multiple weighted (as well as contradicting) meanings.

The simple answer to this question: Jasper Johns eludes definition because his work carries aspects of many modern movements. Although against the Ab-Ex generation, encaustic gives us a sense of the artist's "autograph," even if John strives to keep it "impersonal." He plays with dreams and the picture-puzzle (like that of Surrealist Rene Magritte, see: "Ceci n'est pas une pipe"). Ambiguity lies at the very heart of the work of Jasper Johns, making it very hard to pin down to one movement.

Fun Fact: This is a bit off topic, but while we are looking at Sartre's existentialist theories, we will find artist's reacting to his concept of nonbeing in different ways, both positively and negatively. It is important to note that the word that is translated as "nonbeing" is actually "neant" in french (excuse my lack of accents, i only know how to type them on a Mac), which carries a more loaded meaning, difficult to translate. Some translations in english actually still hold on to the word neant because of this. Note that within the word "aneantir" to annihilate is "neant". Aneantir, to annihilate, to make to waste, to nothing. Moral: Sartre is best said in French.