Read on to discover five Jasper Johns artworks and the stories behind them.
Here are five Jasper Johns artworks that sought to challenge audiences perceptions of the world.
This artwork made Johns one of the first artists to provide polar meanings in a national symbol.
Mounted above the target are four plaster casts that depict the lower half of human faces.
The faces were referenced from a single model over a period of four months and arranged in non-sequential order.
By not showing the models eyes, the cropped faces appear to represent the anonymous masses.
However, each written word is mismatched with the visual color.
For example, Johns writes the word white in red ink, stenciled over yellow brushstrokes.
By focusing on abstracting colors and the words that represent them, Johns removes traditional associations.
He says of his work, The flags and targets have colors positioned in a predetermined way.
On the far-left side, the small canvas features a silhouette of Marcel Duchamp, Johns mentor.
Duchamp did a work which was a torn square, Johns recalls.
He first saw the pattern on a passing car.
Again, Johns creates tension between composition and subject, inviting the viewer to ponder the works true meaning.
Jasper Johns:Website
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