Jasper Johns

Jasper Johns is an American painter, printmaker and sculptor whose work is centralized around American postwar art. He studied briefly at the University of South Carolina, though later on he moved to New York to pursue his artistic career and attended Parsons School of Design for one semester. In New York, he became close with several creative minds such as composer John Cage, choreographer Merce Cunningham and painter Robert Rauschenberg. It was this environment that acted as a huge influence in his artistic development. Johns started to center his art around the American flag and other recreational objects, which is the work he is best known for. In addition to his paintings, he also has extensive works of ink on plastic, lithographs, monoprints, and sculptures of everyday objects. Johns bridged the gap between Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art.

Johns’ work has been displayed in many exhibitions and collections including the Jewish Museum, Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011, becoming one of the few artists to receive this award.