Jasper Johns (b. 1930)
Color Numeral series, 1969
Ten lithographs, from one stone and two aluminum plates
38 x 31 inches, each
Jasper Johns (b. 1930, Augusta, Georgia) is one of the most significant and influential American postwar artists, and is also regarded as one of the greatest printmakers. Born in Georgia and raised in South Carolina, he began drawing at age three, knowing very early on that he wanted to be an artist. Johns attended the University of South Carolina at Columbia for three semesters, where his art professors encouraged him to move to New York. He did so in 1949, remaining there until May 1951, when he was drafted into the Army and stationed in Japan during the Korean War. In New York, he attended Parsons School of Design for one semester, while frequenting exhibitions across the city.
After serving in Japan for two years, Johns returned to New York in 1953, where he formed close friendships with artist Robert Rauschenberg, composer John Cage, and choreographer Merce Cunningham. Together, they helped to establish a new American avant-garde built on imagery and chance, in which the cognitive overtaking the role of the emotive. Johns’s work signaled a new direction for contemporary art, ushering in several movements in the 1960’s including Pop, Minimalism, and Conceptual art. Johns took interest in the repurposing of familiar motifs including targets, flags, numbers, and maps, challenging their status as things that are looked at but not examined, or what he has called “things the mind already knows.”
Johns first solo show at Leo Castelli Gallery opened in January 1958 when he was 28. Sixteen of the eighteen works on view sold, and Alfred H Barr Jr., the founding director of the Museum of Modern Art, purchased three paintings from the show — the first of his work to enter a museum collection.
Johns achieved major institutional recognition early in his career. In 1964, The Jewish Museum presented Jasper Johns: A Retrospective, a ten-year survey that cemented his role as a major figure in modern American Art. In 1977, he became one of the youngest artists to receive a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. He has been the subject of several retrospectives at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art since 1977. His work is held in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; Tate, London; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and many other major institutions.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain, Jasper Johns: Night Diver, May 29–October 12, 2026.
Craig Starr Gallery, New York, Jasper Johns: Flags, April 2–June 27, 2026.
Powers Art Center, Carbondale, Colorado, Jasper Johns: a whole can be only a part, December 2, 2025–October 31, 2026.
Powers Art Center, Carbondale, Colorado, Not Mine But Taken – An Intentional Look at Jasper Johns, June 1, 2024–November 1, 2025.
San Diego Museum of Art, Jasper Johns: Drawings and Prints, May 18–October 27, 2024.
Selected Group Exhibitions
Museum Tinguely, Basel, Fresh Window: The Art of Display & Display of Art, December 4, 2024–May 11, 2025.
Pruzan Art Center, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, Reading Signs: Jasper Johns and Glenn Ligon in Print, September 18–December 11, 2024.
Glenstone Museum, Potomac, Maryland, Iconoclasts: Selections from Glenstone’s Collection, November 16, 2023–January 4, 2026.
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Among Friends: The Generosity of Judy and Ken Dayton, June 10, 2023–May 19, 2024.
Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Australia, Rauschenberg & Johns: Significant Others, March 11–May 14, 2023.
Selected Publications
Shiff, Richard. Jasper Johns Flags. New York: Craig Starr Gallery, 2026.
Basualdo, Carlos, and Scott Rothkopf. Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art; Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2021.
Storr, Robert, and Agnes Gund. Jasper Johns: Crosshatch. New York: Craig Starr Gallery, 2019.
Breslin, David. The Condition of Being Here: Drawings by Jasper Johns. Houston: The Menil Collection, 2018.
Bernstein, Roberta, Edith Devaney, Hiroko Ikegami, Morgan Meis, and Robert Storr. Jasper Johns. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2017.
