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Jasper Johns 1930–, American artist, b. Augusta, Ga. Influenced by Marcel Duchamp in the mid-1950s, Johns attempted to transform common objects into art by placing them in an art context. His flags and target images executed from 1954 to 1959 heralded the pop art movement. Johns based his painting technique on the informal brushwork and texture of abstract expressionism, attaching literal elements such as rulers and brooms to the canvas. His bronze castings, such as Beer Cans (1960), are also derived from common objects. His later works, such as the Seasons (1987), have become increasingly self-referential, using recurrent motifs as symbols to pull the viewer into an engagement with the work.
See studies by R. Bernstein (1985), M. Rosenthal (1988), and G. Boudaille (1989).
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