Jasper Jones flag. Jasper Johns - interesting facts from the life of an American artist

“I think the very concept of an object is questionable. The canvas is the object, the paint is the object and the object is the object. Since the canvas is supposed to have some kind of spatial meaning, then the object painted on the canvas can be endowed with the same meaning.” Jasper Johns, Bard of the Everyday

You will laugh, but Jasper Johns (1930-...) is still alive and feeling great. Last year he even received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.

Jasper Johns - right

Jones is a true classic and the most expensive of living artists. A few years ago this was his work

False start

was purchased for $80 million. In short, there are no other such seasoned creators now*.

But at first nothing foreshadowed such beautiful life. Little Jaspike learned the realities of reality in a farming family in Allendale, South Carolina. Jones later described this hole as follows: “There were no artists or art in the place where I grew up, and I didn’t really know what it was.” Then he briefly studied painting at the state university, and in the early 50s. nevertheless, he left for New York, where he met and became friends with the older and more advanced Rauschenberg - he was born in Port Arthur and studied in Paris. The future forerunners and founders of American pop art rented workshops in the same attic, so they always had the opportunity to chat during long New York evenings about how they could arrange avant-garde art.

Advanced American artists were then working hard within the framework of abstract expressionism. The most advanced worked within the same framework, but thought about how to get out of it - abstract expressionism was too abstract, serious and dull for them. Europe did not throw up any suitable ideas - the same abstract expressionism in its local version - Tachisme - flourished there. Something similar to future pop art was stirring among young people in London - among Hamilton and Alloway, but it is unlikely that Jones and Rauschenberg knew about it. In general, we had to get out of the situation ourselves.

Here, fortunately, the fashion for Dadaism took off in the USA. Excellent catalogs were published, exhibitions of Duchamp and another Dada hero, Kurt Schwitters, were held. Jones and Rauschenberg thought about it.

I will write later what conclusions Rauschenberg made from these thoughts. We'll take care of Jones now. And he came up with this:

Flag

Of course, Duchamp’s lessons could not be avoided here - there is also a game with ready made - a ready-made object. Duchamp’s logic was this: we take this very ready-made object (urinal, bicycle wheel, bottle dryer), which no one would think of calling a work of art, sign it with our name and exhibit it in an art space such as a gallery. Since this gesture of appropriation, that is, appropriation, was committed by the artist, it follows that the appropriated object is a work of art, for everything that the artist labels as art is it. Well, simply because the artist’s job is to make art.

What is Jones doing? And Jones also makes appropriation, but in a different way. He takes the same banal, mass-produced object and depicts it on canvas. Nothing new yet - the same Van Gogh painted boots or a chair. But Van Gogh emphasized the individuality of these mass-produced objects; for him it was a way to show the personality of the owner through his things. Jones is not looking for any individuality. He equates the image of an object with the object itself, for which, in particular, he takes a completely flat contraption. Thus, the flag and its image are the same. That is, roughly speaking, you can tear Jones’s work off the stretcher, go with it to the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers game, wave it with all your might in the stands, and they will understand you. The only thing here that hints that this is a picture after all is the rather expressive strokes.

On the one hand, the brushstrokes are a heavy legacy of the same abstract expressionism through which Jones passed. On the other hand, this is such a subtle action, and this is its meaning. If Duchamp sweepingly killed traditionally understood art, replacing the work with a serial thing made somewhere and by someone, then Jones, as it were, returns this traditionally understood art to us with the help of his pictorial prowess. In fact, this is a game with the viewer, a game that is mocking and sometimes even offensive to him, since he, the viewer, is given back the same finished object, only in a wrapper - Duchamp did not use it.

You can say it another way. With his great** work, Jones says: “Dear, are you tired of abstract painting? Are you tired of watching something that has no analogues in real life? Do you crave figurativeness and the simple human similarity between a picture and real life? On the. There is nothing more like life than the life you see every day. You see the American flag often, don’t you? Well, look at him in the gallery too.”

In general, all the meanings contained in “Flag” fit well into the proto-conceptualist games of the mind. So Jones is a master whose work lies at the crossroads of neo-Dadaism, pop art and early conceptualism. A difficult person.

Surprisingly, the era of the creation of the “Flag” tried to introduce two more mutually exclusive meanings into it – patriotism/unpatriotism. Those were harsh times - McCarthyism was in the yard in America, which, in the sense of the relationship between the state and contemporary art a little reminiscent of our current situation (but ours is cooler, if you remember at least the story with Pussy Riot). Even Alfred Barr, director of the Museum of Modern Art, was embarrassed and bought for permanent exhibition"Flag" through intermediaries. A famous critic Robert Rosenblum bluntly posed the question: “Is this sacrilege or respect?” Jones, of course, spoke simply on this topic: “The flag was just a flag.”

Despite all these implicit signals from the outside, Jones did not leave the US flag alone. Soon he made a flag like this, devoid of color symbolism:

White flag

And then I was stunned by this picture:

Three flags

This is already a harbinger of Warhol's circulation. Warhol simply took this principle to the limit - his “Campbell Soup Can” is a stupid repeated repetition of the same image. Jones, as a pioneer, was at the beginning of this path, and so far its circulation resembled not an endless row of products on a supermarket shelf, but a store where flags of different sizes lie on the counter. Jones still cares about the differences (I don’t want to write - the sizes are already worn out) within this circulation. But the principle is stated.

Two cans***

This is another of Jones's most famous works. Almost the same thing can be said about it as has already been said about “Flag,” except for discussions about flatness. Here, however, a new feature is added, because bronze is a very serious material, working with it requires a lot of effort and serious time. They make monuments out of it, after all. And here again is the same mass finished product.

In general, as my neighbor Uncle Pavlik says: “If this Jones had created nothing, damn it, except this wonderful “Flag” and these beautiful cans of beer, then he would still have a place at the very top of the hierarchy in avant-garde art - I answer” . And he’s right, Uncle Pavlik. And Jones, in his later work, came up with another joke - to depict signs.

Digit 4

He also wrote letters in the same way. Here Jones has already risen to the heights of a truly sophisticated medieval debate between realists and nominalists. After all, what is a number or a letter? This is a sign, not a real object. It (the sign), according to the complex and not fully understood laws of semiotics, means something that is in no way connected with the shape (inscription) of this sign. Roughly speaking, this thing, the “4” sign, does not exist in nature. But we know its outline well. So what does Jones do? – he plays here on the verge of existing/not existing. He paints with his impasto strokes (which were depicted in traditional art a jug, a tree, at worst a naked woman, i.e. quite real things) things that, in essence, do not exist. With these brushstrokes, Jones gives them a quality of existence. And since we still often see the number 4 in life (in the number of a bus, say), the dialogue with Jones moves to the next, no less fascinating, level - what, after all, did he depict in his picture?

Bulb

Less impressive than beer cans, but still good. Jones also embodied the boots and toothbrush.

Map

Same move as in "Flag".

Target

Again a flat object.

From 1 to 9

The funny thing here is that all the numbers are superimposed on each other. Those. There are nine of them, but it still turns out flat. The signs have no thickness.

* Claes Oldenburg (b. 1929) and James Rosenquist (b. 1933) are still alive - also classics, but somewhat less classics than Jones. Surprisingly, all three are classics of pop art. There is something healthy about this pop art: Robert Rauschenberg lived to be 82 years old, Richard Hamilton lived to be 89 years old. I don’t hire 70-year-olds.

** From my point of view, the top five most fundamental and important works for the development of avant-garde art, in addition to “Flag,” include “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” Picasso , "Fountain" by Duchamp, "Black square "Malevich and "Chair and three chairs » Joseph Kosuth.

*** A joke happened here. The powerful gallery owner Leo Castelli was a big fan of pop art. Once, in the presence of Jones, the abstract expressionist Willem de Kooning, in order to omit the pop art that was hostile to him and, at the same time, Castelli, said that he would buy anything if you told him that it was pop art. At least beer cans. Jones implemented this proposal in this form.

Jasper John is a famous American artist who managed to surprise the world with his paintings in several popular destinations: abstract art, pop art and expressionism. His most famous work will always remain “Flag”, written at the turn of 1954-1955.

Biographical facts from the life of Jasper Johns

Jasper Johns is a native of Augusta, Georgia. He was born on May 15, 1930. However, after some time, his parents separated and he moved with his mother to South Carolina. The bulk of his childhood was spent there. Due to his mother's attempts to arrange a personal life, the boy often moved from his mother to his grandparents in Allendale. It was believed that there were no worthy artists in these two cities, so, according to Jones himself, he became self-taught. Later, in 1947, he finally entered the Faculty of Arts. After studying for three terms, Jasper decides to leave the university and go to New York, where the formation of his worldview begins, and special features of painting emerge.

New York did not live up to the young man's expectations and he went to the US Army after completing one semester. The service was not easy for him. It was during these years that the Korean War broke out, so he was sent from a base in South Carolina to Sendai (Japan). After the war, he returned to New York where he met gallery owner Leo Castelli and Alfred Barr, who was listed as director Modern Museum arts

The best works of Jasper Johns

Surprisingly, the first ones received recognition, and, perhaps, best works artist. All work carried out in the second half of the 50s was filled special meaning, subtlety of edges and soul. Art critics are confident that the reason for the sensuality in the images was his boyfriend Robert Rauschenberg. The well-known “Flag” was created around 1955. The work received a lot of reviews, criticism and controversy. They saw it as a manifestation of American imperialism, while others argued that it was a complete mockery of their own country. Be that as it may, Alfred Barr decides to buy the painting for permanent exhibition. But the criticism is so sharp and multifaceted that it becomes dangerous to buy it. Barr decides to "buy through an intermediary." Someone purchased the painting and donated it to the museum.

One interesting view of this work is that Jones is making political objections to his country. Robert Rosenblum very aptly posed the question “is it sacrilege or reverence?” After much reasoning and wandering in search of the truth, he finally comes to a conclusion, calling the picture “blasphemous and disrespectful.”

The flag was one of the artist’s favorite themes. A little later it appears in the paintings “White Flag” and “Three Flags”. However, the first painting failed to outshine any of those painted later. Around the "Flag" still for a long time There were a lot of conjectures and assumptions. Already in the 20th century, considering it from the point of view of the art movement, it becomes clear that it became a challenge and the beginning of a large-scale movement. In other words, we can safely say that Jasper Johns gave freedom to the work of Andy Warhol and other representatives of pop art of the 60s.

Another version says that “Flag” is a kind of continuation of the ideas of Marcel Duchamp and his successors. As can be seen from practice, a flag can be printed on fabric and it will look like a simple thing, without symbolic meaning. Playing with an object, creating a symbol - all this distinguishing feature the works of Jasper Johns.

Popular artists

Jasper Johns(English) Jasper Johns , R. 1930) is an American artist working in the genres of pop art. Author of the picture "Flag".

Biography, creativity

Jasper Johns born in Augusta (Georgia, USA) on May 15, 1930. Soon his parents divorced and the child and his mother moved to South Carolina, where he spent most of your childhood. He lived alternately in the city of Columbia, where his mother lived, and in Allendale, with his grandparents. Despite the fact that, by Jones’s own admission, there were no artists in South Carolina at that time, he himself began to paint quite early. In 1947, Jones entered the Faculty of Art at the University of South Carolina, from where, however, he left after three semesters in 1948 and moved to New York.

In New York, Jasper Johns attended the Parson School of Design for one semester and actively attended various exhibitions, but in 1950 he enlisted in the US Army and served for two years, first at a base in South Carolina, and then in the city of Sendai in Japan (his service time was in years Korean War). After demobilization, Jones returned to New York, where he met and soon began to live with Robert Rauschenberg, who had a significant influence on him and introduced him to other representatives of modern American art of the time, including gallerist Leo Castelli and Alfred Barr (then director of the Museum of Modern Art).

The name Jasper Johns is most often associated with his early works dating back to the second half of the 1950s. In a manner early period The artist's work can be limited to the period from 1954 to 1961, when he lived with his boyfriend Robert Rauschenberg. Probably the most famous painting by Jones to the general public "Flag" was created just at this time, in 1955. This work caused a lot of controversy. It was interpreted by the most in different ways, seeing in it both a manifestation of American “imperialism” and, on the contrary, disrespect for one’s own country. Alfred Barr decided to purchase “Flag” for permanent exhibition, but was afraid of accusations of unpatriotism and therefore carried out the entire purchase process through an intermediary, who then donated the painting to the museum. Art critics of the time also tended to see Jones's work as a definite political statement. So, for example, Robert Rosenblum poses the question exactly this way: “is it sacrilege or reverence?” and calls the picture “blasphemous and disrespectful.” However, the artist himself claimed that he saw in a dream how he was painting the US flag and then, waking up, began to work.

The theme of the American flag was played up by Jones in a number of other works created during that period of time. The most notable works here can be considered "White flag"(1955) and "Three Flags" (1958).

In subsequent years, the controversy surrounding this work by Jones did not subside, but went beyond the discussion of the level of patriotism of the artist. Considering the “Flag” in the context of 20th century art and trying to determine its role for various art movements, this picture began to be considered as one of the first examples of pop art. Jasper Johns can thus be considered the artist who, in a sense, paved the way for Andy Warhol and the entire American pop art of the 60s. In addition, "Flag" began to be created back in 1954, which is even earlier than Richard Hamilton's collage "What Makes Our Homes Today So Different, So Attractive?" (1956), which in turn is traditionally considered one of the first works in the pop art genre in Great Britain.

On the other hand, Jasper Johns's "Flag" can be considered as a certain continuation of the ideas of Marcel Duchamp and his ready-mades. In fact, the Jones flag can be transferred without changes to a material more familiar to flags and used exactly as a flag, i.e. hang it out of the window, go to the stadium, etc. That. we get something like a “readymade in reverse,” when a work of art can be used as a banal household item without any changes. The US flag is one of the most recognizable, and therefore the most banal symbols, etc. turning to it is still the same turning to everyday objects. “Playing” with an object, with a symbol, creating a work of art with the artist’s signature - all this is characteristic of Dadaism and therefore the work of Jasper Johns can be attributed to the so-called. neodada. However, it should be noted that this very term was proposed by Barbara Rose precisely to characterize the work of Jones and Rauschenberg, and the artist himself, speaking about the concept of “object,” noted that “the very concept of an object is doubtful. The canvas is the object, the paint is the object and the object is the object. Since the canvas is supposed to have some kind of spatial meaning, then the object painted on the canvas can be endowed with the same meaning.”

In addition to all of the above, “Flag” can also be considered in the context of overcoming abstract expressionism. At the same time, Jasper Johns himself was least involved in the fight against the prevailing trend of that time, but his painting can still be classified as figurative and he began to “multiply” symbols (although the concept of simulacrum can hardly be fully applied here) while the story itself with the dream and the expressive strokes are reminiscent of the image of the artist, typical of an abstract expressionist, etc. Jasper Johns again becomes a kind of “connecting element” between, relatively speaking, such figures of American art as Pollock and Warhol.

In addition to the flag, Jasper Johns also worked with a number of other symbols. For example, he owns a series of works with images of numbers in a variety of variations (“Gray numbers”, “0 to 9”, “0-9”, etc.), as well as many images of US maps and various types of targets . All these symbols are part ordinary world, but in Everyday life the average person tends to ignore their form, paying attention only to what they “mean” in their various combinations. It is extremely rare that the significance of a single number or letter is questioned, just as rarely does anyone talk about the very shape of a flag or map. Jones apparently ignores issues related to how individual letters or numbers interact with each other to create language and meaning. In his early work “Gray Numbers,” for example, he devotes the entire space of the canvas to a grid filled with numbers. The numbers are drawn on a stencil, each in its own cell throughout the entire picture with the exception of the upper left rectangle. They are arranged in a certain sequence, but it is not the meaning of each number that attracts attention, but the shape, structure, and order that the artist himself creates.

In the mid-60s, Jasper Johns took up sculpture. Here it is also impossible not to mention once again the confrontation between abstract expressionism and pop art. The fact is that one of its most famous sculptures– two beer cans (“Ale cans”, 1964) – the artist made in response to Willem de Kooning’s caustic remark about professional activity gallery owner Leo Castelli, which boils down to the fact that the latter will even buy beer cans if you say that it is pop art.

Jasper Johns' sculptures mostly depict everyday objects (flashlights, light bulbs, beer cans) made in bronze. About the semantic load of these works, one can say everything that has already been written about “Flag” and other works of Jones. Here we see a game with household items, a return from abstractionism to figurative art, a kind of message to the viewer who is tired of incomprehensible abstractions, boiling down to the fact that if you don’t need incomprehensible fantasy “patterns”, then you can admire objects familiar to everyone, for example, empty cans of ale. The sculpture “The Critic's Eye” (1964) stands out somewhat. this work represents a metaphor for the work of an art critic.

In the 80s, Jones began creating collages, the themes of which also touched upon the problem of the semantic content of familiar symbols and signs that are grouped in the life of the average person, without having any “real”, original common denominator, except directly for the person in whose head they all have some meaning and mean something. Taken out of the general cultural discourse, various signs getting back together already in privacy person and, of course, begin to mean something in it, but we are no longer talking about original objects or even ideas, but about simulacra - copies without an original.

After the final break with Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns began to increasingly strive for solitude. Since the 90s, he has hardly given interviews, but still continued to contact a few selected figures in the art world and exhibit his new works from time to time. In August 2013, Jasper Johns made headlines again after his assistant James Mayer, who worked for him from 1988 to 2012, was accused of stealing half-finished paintings by the master for a total of six and a half million dollars. Jones himself prohibited the sale of these works, but Meyer absconded with 22 works from the artist's studio in Sharon, Connecticut, to sell them through an unidentified person at a gallery in New York, claiming that they were all gifts from Jones. Jones would not comment on the theft, but contacted police shortly after the missing works were discovered.

Jasper Johns currently divides his time between his studios in Sharon, Connecticut, where he moved in the 1990s, and his studio on St. Martin.

Jasper Johns(English) Jasper Johns) (May 15, Augusta (Georgia), USA) - contemporary American artist, one of the key figures in the direction of pop art.

Biography

Jasper Johns grew up in Allendale, South Carolina, and in describing this period of his life, he said, “Where I grew up, there were no artists or art; I didn’t really know what it was.” Jones studied painting for some time at the University of South Carolina - from to, for a total of three semesters. He then moved to New York, where he met Robert Rauschenberg, from whom he adopted advanced ideas in contemporary art. Working together, they explored the art scene and developed their ideas in art. Jasper Johns was also influenced by the ideas of Marcel Duchamp. The Bicycle Wheel and other readymades by Duchamp became the inspiration for a series of objects cast in bronze that the artist created in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In 1958, gallery owner Leo Castelli discovered Jones during a visit to Rauschenberg's studio. Was friends with Andy Warhol.

Creation

Most significant works Jasper Johns is generally considered to be a series of his early paintings, created in the second half of the 1950s. The most famous work of Jasper Johns is “Flag” (1954-1955), which he painted after a dream about the American flag. His work is sometimes classified as neo-Dada rather than pop art, despite his frequent use of imagery popular culture. Early works created using such simple images like flags, cards, targets, letters and numbers. The treatment of the surface is often rich and picturesque. The artist often incorporates encaustic and relief into his paintings.

Jasper Johns' sculptures feature everyday objects cast in bronze, such as a flashlight, a light bulb, or a toothbrush. One of the most famous works Jasper Johns - two bronze beer cans.

In 1988, Jasper Johns' "False Start" sold for $17,050,000. At that time, this was a record amount paid for a work of contemporary art during the artist’s lifetime.

Most famous works

• Flag (1954-1955)
• White flag (1955)
• Three flags (1958)
• False start (1959)
• Map (1961)
• Study for Skin (1962)
• Figure Five (1963-1964)
• Seasons (1986)

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Literature

• Tomkins K. Biographies of artists. - Moscow: V-A-C press, 2013. - 272 p. - 1500 copies. - ISBN 978-5-9904389-2-7.

Links

• Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Act out a Jasper Johns painting.

Notes

Excerpt characterizing Jones, Jasper

Of the youth, not counting eldest daughter the countess (who was four years older than her sister and already behaved like a grown-up) and the young lady's guest, Nikolai and Sonya's niece remained in the living room. Sonya was a thin, petite brunette with a soft, shaded long eyelashes a look, a thick black braid that wrapped around her head twice, and a yellowish tint to the skin on her face and especially on her naked, thin, but graceful, muscular arms and neck. With the smoothness of her movements, the softness and flexibility of her small limbs, and her somewhat cunning and reserved manner, she resembled a beautiful, but not yet fully formed kitten, which would become a lovely little cat. She apparently considered it decent to show participation in the general conversation with a smile; but against her will, from under her long thick eyelashes, her eyes looked at her cousin, who was leaving for the army [ cousin] with such girlish passionate adoration that her smile could not deceive anyone for a moment, and it was clear that the cat sat down only to jump even more energetically and play with her sauce, as soon as they were just like Boris and Natasha , will get out of this living room.
“Yes, ma chere,” said the old count, turning to his guest and pointing to his Nicholas. - His friend Boris was promoted to officer, and out of friendship he does not want to lag behind him; leaves both the university and me as an old man: he goes to military service,ma here. And his place in the archive was ready, and that was it. Is that friendship? - said the count questioningly.
“But they say war has been declared,” said the guest.
“They’ve been saying this for a long time,” said the count. “They’ll talk and talk again and leave it at that.” Ma chere, that’s friendship! - he repeated. - He is going to the hussars.
The guest, not knowing what to say, shook her head.
“Not out of friendship at all,” answered Nikolai, flushing and making excuses as if from a shameful slander against him. – Not friendship at all, but I just feel a calling to military service.

Jasper Johns

Jasper Johns was often perceived as a mediator between two movements in art - abstract expressionism and pop art. However, its long creative path, on different stages which included painting, sculpture and joint artistic activity, continued for many decades and cannot be reduced to this short period in the mid-1950s. Taking ideas from the latest artistic directions 20th century and commercial culture, Jones found his way away from abstract art. Like the pop artists who followed him, Jones transformed appearance easily recognizable objects such as cards, targets and numbers. And, most importantly, it changed the way we perceive these symbols and brought to the surface the complexity of the phenomena of everyday iconography.

However, his artistic practice required the use of intense brushstrokes, applying thick layers of paint, encaustic, beeswax and other similar materials to recognizable symbols. Working to this day, Jasper Johns remains interested in logic, the phenomenon of language, and the exploration of meaning through altered symbols.

The subject - for example, the painting Target (Fig. 16) - is identical to the plane of the canvas. These works exist as independent and self-sufficient objects.

Jones met the artist Robert Rauschenberg, from whom he adopted advanced ideas in modern art. He also adopted many of the ideas of Marcel Duchamp; Duchamp's bicycle wheel and other readymades became the inspiration for a series of objects cast in bronze that Jones created in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Perhaps the most significant works of Jasper Johns can be called a series of his early paintings, created in the second half of the 1950s. The American flag is depicted not flying proudly in the wind, but stretched out on a plane; this neutralizes the patriotic meaning of the picture and turns the flag into an emblem, something like a book reproduction.

Jasper Johns also experienced periods of fascination with Picasso1 and worked in the style of abstract expressionism (the overcoming of which is the leitmotif of the work of many pop artists). But Jones is remembered precisely as bright representative pop art. To the list of pop symbols created by Jones, one can add “targets” (this plot and its variations are widely represented in circulation graphics), symbolist “numbers” and the famous pair of Ballantine Ale beer cans, embodied in numerous paintings and bronze sculptures.

As the plot of its own famous painting Jasper Johns chose the American flag. However, the artist was not inspired by patriotic feelings, but only by the desire to present the most banal, easily recognizable object. What could be more banal than the Stars and Stripes? The Jones flag does not flutter on a flagpole or in the hands of a victorious soldier - it seems to be spread out on the wall. The artist does not depict, but transforms the object: he does not try to deceive the viewer into believing that his flag is real. With the help of encaustic painting - a painting technique used back in Ancient Greece- Jones creates a relief surface of the canvas. Three flags different sizes, located one on top of the other, blinds like the light of a signal lamp. Along with his other compatriot Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns is considered one of the most prominent representatives of American pop art

“One night I dreamed that I was painting a large American flag, the next morning I woke up and went to buy materials to start working on it. I start work. I worked for a long time on creating my painting. This is a very tedious job that requires a lot of physical effort - I started painting it with household enamel paint, which is used to paint furniture, and it dries very slowly. Then an idea came into my head that I had read or heard about somewhere - the idea of ​​​​using wax paints" (Jasper Johns). "Modernism: Analysis and Critique of Mainstreams." Under. edited by V.V. Kolpinsky, publishing house “Iskusstvo” 1980, (p. 256)

The interpretation of a painting as an object naturally led the artist to compare real objects with those painted on canvas, and then to create a sculpture. Jasper Johns' sculptures feature everyday objects cast in bronze, such as a flashlight, a light bulb, or a toothbrush. One of the most famous works of Jasper Johns is two bronze beer cans.