b. 1930
Jasper Johns was born in Augusta, GA, and raised in Adelaide, SC. From an early age, he grew up wanting to be an artist. Before moving to New York in the early 1950s, he studied for a brief period at the University of South Carolina. Upon moving to New York, Johns met artists, which led him down the road of wanting to work in this career field even more. John Cage (composer) and Merce Cunningham (choreographer), and Robert Rauschenburg (painter), were some of the early influences he met in New York. A visit to Pennsylvania, to view The Large Glass by Marcel Dunchamp, created an intrigue in his work for Johns. Dunchamp had changed the art world with the "readymades" ( a series of found objects, painted as finished works). His distinct work and style played a role in Johns's interest in art, and the style he would eventually follow.
As the art world was searching for new ideas, outside the purely abstract style, the early paintings of maps and flags which Johns created, took in both praise and ridicule by certain critics in the art world. The early works he created had a sense of craft work, and a small expression of the extraordinary and absurd. The process to create the images, were where the meanings were found. Much of the work that he created led the American public away from the expressionism form, and towards an art movement or form known as the concrete.
As the art world was searching for new ideas, outside the purely abstract style, the early paintings of maps and flags which Johns created, took in both praise and ridicule by certain critics in the art world. The early works he created had a sense of craft work, and a small expression of the extraordinary and absurd. The process to create the images, were where the meanings were found. Much of the work that he created led the American public away from the expressionism form, and towards an art movement or form known as the concrete.
