Customer Reviews (1)

A muct have for contemporary artists
I have found this book most helpful. The articles written by the various contributors is worth the price alone. The illustrations are satisfactory as most of these works are about texture.This book will be a friend for a long time. ... Read more

Amazon.com
In any survey of the art of the second half of this century, Jasper Johns is a central figure. This comprehensive book is the most authoritative and complete book to date on this important North American artist. This lavish volume contains 483 illustrations, including 261 in full color and four foldouts. Johns's entire oeuvre is arranged in sections corresponding to each era of his career in all media--paintings, drawings, sculptures, and prints. With its scholarly essays, beautiful color plate reproductions, and extensive bibliography and chronology, this book is sure to become the definitive resource on Jasper Johns.Book Description
Jasper Johns's art unites mastery, mystery, simplicity, and contradiction. His methodical working process combines intense deliberation and experimentation, obsessive craft, cycles of revision and repetition, and decisive shifts of direction. Johns also frequently borrows images from other artists, which, ironically, only underscores the originality of his own vision. His work occupies a key position in the art of the second half of the twentieth century. Jasper Johns: A Retrospective is the most complete and authoritative resource on it available, containing 264 color plates illustrating his paintings, drawings, sculptures, and prints. Accompanying essays review his essential themes, analyze his references to other artists, and explore how his contemporaries have, in turn, seen and absorbed his own work. The plates are arranged to follow the stages of his career, allowing comparison of paintings, drawings, sculptures, and prints from each period, as his style developed and changed. That comprehensive selection of reproductions is interwoven with an illustrated chronology tracing Johns' life and work with unprecedented accuracy and thoroughness. With its scholarly essays and extensive bibliography, Jasper Johns: A Retrospective is the indispensable reference work on this crucial artist. This volume was originally published to accompany the major exhibition of Johns' work held at The Museum of Modern Art in 1996 and 1997, his first full retrospective in 20 years. It has been out of print since 2002. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A magnificent retrospective of this great artist's life work
Did you miss the Johns retrospective at NY MOMA?This book captures the essence of an American Michaelangelo.Subjective?You bet!If you have even the slightest interest in modern art your library is not complete without this retrospective.The many color and b&w photographs are superb, and it is accompanied by a solid chronology of Mr. Johns's life.Emphasis is on original works, but includes a good selection of more important lithographs (I recommend the prints Catalog Raisonne by ULAE if you want a complete reference work in this area).A tour de force by Varnedoe and his editing team! ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (4)

beautiful reproductions
This is a wonderful book to add to any art library. Although I have yet to read all the bio, the parts I have begun are nicely written. There is even some photo reference to how he created these works, pinned to the wall.

Top-quality illustrations
Published to accompany an exhibition held at the National Gallery in Washington (and later at the Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland) and concentrating on the pivotal decade 1955-1965 when Johns produced his most famous works, this catalogue is worth it mainly because of the quality of the illustrations. So much has been written on Johns's art that it is sometimes refreshing to be able to pause in front of his works and just enjoy them for their pure pictorial quality (color, texture...). This book enables you to do just that. Then if you want to read the text, you will find it well written, clever (especially at the end of the book, where paintings are analysed and interpreted one by one and in detail), sometimes a bit far-fetched, but just like everything else I know which has dealt with Johns's art (see Chrichton, Varnedoe,etc...).

An equisite, full-color, thoughtful read . . . but
This book is gorgeous in its color, close-ups, and perspectives on Mr. Johns, but perhaps "Mr. Johns's temper" would flair when he realizes throughout the book he'd find "Mr. Johns' temper." Perhaps a global spell-check changed everything reflecting Mr. Johns's last name, but gee-wiz what a horrible annoyance. I was stunned this would happen through the auspices of the National Gallery in Washington. Perhaps President Bush had a night job editing this text while reading his 60 books a year?

Targets, Flags, and More
An excellent and broad-spectrumcatalog of an exhibit based on a seminal decade, 1955-1965,in Jasper Johns' career.Writers analyze diverse aspects of these early years of Johns' career that established him as one of the great figures in modern art and stimulated much in art created by others. I especially enjoyed the essays by artist and critic Robert Morris and conservation expert Carol Mancusi-Ungaro. Excellent reproductions of the works shown in the exhibit. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Good
Novelists have always loved artists, and artists have always loved novelists. They love and admire the other's talent, but--most important--they are not competitors. Crichton's love of Johns' workcertainly comes forth, and Johns' seemed flattered that a best-sellingnovelist, and not an art professor, wanted to do a book on him. That mutualadmiration underlies why this is such a solid book.

Probably as good as possible--without being intrusive
The author well restrained himself from "digging into the painful childhood" that produced such an unusually remote "negator of impulses."He brought out the positive aspects of Johnspersonality--his ability to laugh at himself and not always to take himselftoo seriously."His work is a constant negation of impulses"said the critic..."wouldn't you say so Jasper?""NO"says Jasper, laughing.Jasper can laugh.That is nice.The authorrespected his need for privacy in his personal life.He presented a verydifficult, complex personality with dignity, humor, and good taste.

Probably as good as possible--without being intrusive
The author well restrained himself from "digging into the painful childhood" that produced such an unusually remote "negator of impulses."He brought out the positive aspects of Johnspersonality--his ability to laugh at himself and not always to take himselftoo seriously."His work is a constant negation of impulses"said the critic..."wouldn't you say so Jasper?""NO"says Jasper, laughing.Jasper can laugh.That is nice.The authorrespected his need for privacy in his personal life.He presented a verydifficult, complex personality with dignity, humor, and good taste.

Jasper Johns: Interesting.
Jasper Johns is a very large, and expensive book. It has many illestrations, and lots of commentary. This is a Crichton that has faded into the background, and in some cases can be very hard to find. ... Read more

Book Description
Though his work is often categorized as Pop Art for its use of popular iconography and household objects, Jasper Johns can also be described as a Neo-Dadaist. Using wax-based paint, plaster relief, collage, and even commonplace objects such as brooms and rulers in his paintings, Johns achieves a sculptural texture in his work. He is arguably most known for his flag paintings of the 1950s (the Museum of Modern Art in New York recently paid over $20 million for White Flag), though other themes, including targets, numbers, letters, and maps, are also famously recurrent. Johns is widely considered one of the most important American artists of the 20th century.
Available in over 20 languages, Taschen's Basic Art series offers budget-minded readers quality books on the greatest artists of all time. The neat, slick format and nice price tag make Basic Art books perfect for collecting.
Every book in the Basic Art series features:
a detailed chronological summary of the artist's life and work, covering the cultural and historical importance of the artist
approximately 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions
a concise biography ... Read more

Book Description
Encouraging young readers' visiual and critical thinking skills, this book takes children on a journey of discovery through a selection of artworks by Jasper Johns and by artists who have inspired him. By searching for places where Jasper Johns has hidden himself in his work - some works include images of his face, profile, or his shadow - young readers are introduced, in a highly original and imaginative way, to the work of this unique American artist, and they also discover new ways of looking at visual art. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent!!!!!!!!
This book is an exceptional tool in gaining a better understanding of art for children and grown ups alike! ... Read more

Amazon.com
An artist's private life is often reflected in his work. Frequently the private is made public, and often this connection makes the work more accessible and interesting. Critic Jill Johnston has taken on the task of exploring the life and work of Jasper Johns--that most private of contemporary artists--and has succeeded brilliantly. Johnston is not simply out to reveal Johns's gayness but to explore how his sexuality has shaped his life and work. Johnston's critical eye is unwavering, her ability to delineate political and social contexts is unnervingly on-target. The fact that Johns resisted Johnston's efforts at biography gives the book an underlying tension making it even more fascinating. Jasper Johns: Privileged Information is a fine, intelligent work of biography and criticism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

how dare she
i love jasper johns, how dare she degrade this man. is she jealous? hahaha.
i bet so.
he is one of the twelve riches artist in america. one of the twelve that gets his money. not like some good artist who dont see much of their money...
i have more to say, but dont know how to post.

Love Johns Hate the Book
The deeper I got into this book, the more I disliked it. It is an invasion of privacy...of a person who has decided to try and remain as private and secluded as he can be (which, by the way, is his right to do). I did read with interest as she helped to unravel the complexity behind his paintings, but did not find any interest in her exploration of his deeply personal life. Besides, the author has a tendency to rant and ramble for whole chapters at a time, which I found tedious to say the least. I gave the book 2 stars because I did learn a few things about Johns. But I can't really recommend the book to anyone.

Crude Slant
If you could just pick out some of the info it would be interesting; but her crude slant on everything was rather pathetic.It was like trying to see the big dipper thru a small crack in the wall of an outhouse.

Abandoned
Abandoned?That sorry father of his went to his mothers house and stole him from the playpen which was outside.Those men could do anything and get away with it.The grandfather literally ruled the town.Big Fish in a Wee town.That's the story I heard all my life and there was no reason for mama to lie--she was on the scene at the time.The snoopy author didn't talk to enough people.

One talent wasted besmirching another
May we all live to see the day when the present fad of mixing up biography with criticism ends!Once again a critic (i.e., wannabe artist) does her best to soil the work of a truly creative artist by trying to impose her own notions of his life on his work.Or is it the other wayaround--imposing notions of the work onto the life?It hardly matters--theresult is the same.Nothing of substance is said about either, and in theprocess of saying nothing, she drags in all kinds of ugliness.Of courseall the while, the author is claiming to be a great admirer of Johns, evenas she purveys her gossip and hearsay.Finally, as is usually the casewith such psychographers, she's just revealing her own unsavory motives andhungering ego.The only reason I give the book two stars is that she's nota bad writer.Too bad she had to waste her talent on such aproject. ... Read more

Book Description
One of the leading proponents of the Pop Art movement, Jasper Johns culled his source material from popular culture with a preoccupation for the enigmatic character of everyday objects, language and numeric systems. This modest volume reviews the artist's broad career via his works on paper and plastic, surveying 30 objects spanning the years 1955-2001, charting his interests, techniques and aesthetic evolution. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Jasper Johns' Favorites
These are works Johns selected for his own collection. Beautifully photographed with an intelligent commentary in English and German, this book is an elegant introduction to the full sweep of Johns' ouevre.

About the works themselves, what can one say? His originality; his passionate engagement with the concepts and materials. Johns sets the high watermark for modern art making over the past 50 years.

... Read more

Product Description
This unedited text by Michel Butor is half way between an essay and a poetical homage to the American artist, with whom met with on various occasions during his academic and literary career. In Butor's own words:I have been able to write a little about Jasper Johns and of him. I have tried to write for him. Only he can say if I have succeeded . Original French text, translated to English and to German. Illustrations: color reproductions of Jasper John's works from the collections of the Kunstmuseum of Basle, Switzerland. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Spectacular 20th Century Collection
Shows the works of the 5 prominent American Artist of the late 20th century ... Read more

Book Description
Jasper Johns is one of the most poignant and sensual of postwar artists, whose works command some of the highest prices for a living artist. Johns is the creator of the famous flags, targets, ale cans, numbers and letters series. Poole traces Johns' development from the Rauschenberg era to the multi-part Season paintings of the 1980s. ... Read more

Book Description
Published to accompany an exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Jasper Johns to Jeff Koons presents contemporary art from the private collections of Eli and Edythe Broad, which are among the most important in the world. Featuring works by 22 significant artists, including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Ed Ruscha, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Cindy Sherman, this handsome volume addresses major movements such as American Neo-Dada and Pop, and German Neo-Expressionism, as well as art of the 1980s and current works from California.

An interview with the Broads and scholarly texts addressing important aspects of the collections situate the 160 full-color plates in art-historical context. ... Read more

Product Description
After completing the installation of his 1996 retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Jasper Johns retreated to his studio in Connecticut to wipe the slate clean, beginning a body of work that was a dramatic departure from anything he had made before. The first painting in this new series included a string hanging from upper right to lower left, generating a curve called a “catenary,” and this curve became the compositional backbone of the entire series.Johns produced a total of 61 paintings, drawings, and prints based on the catenary theme. The work is saturated with autobiographical references, both transparent and opaque, while it simultaneously encourages multiple layers of meaning. Sensual surfaces, fragile constructions, and formal rigor meet allusions to key moments in the history of modern art and motifs from Johns’s earlier work.The poetry of Johns’s catenary series is explored in an illustrated essay by the young scholar Scott Rothkopf in a catalogue published alongside the exhibition by steidl/mm. The publication reproduces all the works in the entire series. ... Read more

Amazon.com
This little book has an essay at the front by Leo Castelli, the legendary New York art dealer who in the late 1950s snapped up the young Jasper Johns for his stable of new artists--nearly all of whom became wildly successful. Most of the rest of the book is like a snapshot album, immersing the reader in pictures of Johns, his studio, his paintings, and historical artifacts. These last include the Art News magazine cover of 1958 that put Johns on the map. Speaking of maps, there are reproductions of Johns's famous U.S. maps, and also of his targets and the late double shadow, crosshatch paintings. In the back of the book, there is a brief chronology, plus captions explaining the preceding plates. It's a surprisingly good idea to place them at the end--nicely non-intrusive.

Read Castelli's essay to get a sense of the renowned and perspicacious Leo Castelli, rather than for what it tells you about Johns. For that, there are hundreds of other sources. One startlingly thoughtful analysis of Johns's work appears in James Fenton's book Leonardo's Nephew. Castelli reveals that MoMA's Tom Hess had "a friend" buy one of Johns's early American flag paintings for the museum in order to bypass a conservative acquisitions committee. Fenton tells us it was the architect Philip Johnson, and that it then took 15 years for MoMA to wrest it from Johnson's appreciative grasp. --Peggy Moorman ... Read more

Amazon.com
Published in conjunction with the 1996-97 retrospective exhibition of Jasper Johns's work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, this book is the very first to place this prolific artist in the context of his own words and private writings. This unprecedented collection of notes from Johns's private sketchbooks, published writings, interviews, and conversations with critics, friends, and other writers--many never before published in English--is an indispensable reference work for anyone interested in learning more about this profound American artist. Also included are 51 rare black-and-white photographs of the artist at work.Book Description
An unprecedented collection, this volume explores Jasper Johns's art and thought, from all periods of his career, through interviews, published writings, working notes he kept in his sketchbooks and recorded conversations with critics and friends. Also included are previously unpublished images from the artist's sketchbooks. As one of the most influential artists of our times, Johns's work has held a key position in the art of the second half of the 20th century, and has had an immense impact on an extraordinarily diverse array of other artists. This compendium of his ideas was collected from a wide range of sources, many of them difficult to access. The provocative originality and subtlety of Johns's thoughts on art are evident throughout, making this book a vital contribution to the study of the artist. ... Read more

Book Description