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Quote by Jasper Johns

“I feel that works of art are an opportunity for people to construct meaning, so I don't usually tell what they mean. It conveys to people that they have to participate.”

Quote by Jasper Johns

Author

Jasper Johns is a renowned American artist, born on May 15, 1930. His works are known for their unique style and profound reflections on American culture. Johns is celebrated for his reinterpretation of everyday objects and his critical exploration of American history, politics, and culture. more

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“In the place where I was a child, there were no artists and there was no art, so I really didn't know what that meant. I think I thought it meant that I would be in a situation different than the one that I was in.”

Thinking Knows Children Art Different Would Be Artist Situation

Author:Jasper Johns

“Early on I was very involved with the notion of the painting as an object and tended to attack that idea from different directions.”

Ideas Different Objects Painting Involved Notion Different Directions

Author:Jasper Johns

“Most of the power of painting comes through the manipulation of space... but I don't understand that.”

Space Painting Manipulation

Author:Jasper Johns

“I often find that having an idea in my head prevents me from doing something else. Working is therefore a way of getting rid of an idea.”

Author:Jasper Johns

“Sometimes I see it and then paint it. Other times I paint it and then see it. Both are impure situations, and I prefer neither. At every point in nature there is something to see. My work contains similar possibilities for the changing focus of the eye.”

Sometimes Eye Situation Focus Possibility Paint

Book:Jasper Johns: A Retrospective

Source: Jasper Johns: A Retrospective

“As in Athens, the right to participate was restricted to men, just as it was also in all later democracies and republics until the twentieth century.”

Men Democracy Century Republic Tyrants Twentieth Century Athens

Book:On Democracy

Source: On Democracy

“One works without thinking how to work.”

Book:Jasper Johns working proofs

Source: Jasper Johns working proofs

“Cubism is an anatomical chart of a way of seeing external objects. But I want to confuse the meaning of the act of looking.”

Way Want Seeing Objects Cubism

Author:Jasper Johns

“Make something, a kind of object, which as it changes or falls apart (dies as it were) or increases in its parts (grows as it were) offers no clue as to what its state or form or nature was at any previous time. Physical and Metaphysical. Obstinacy. Could this be a useful object?”

Kind States Form Dies Fall Grows Objects Offers Increase Metaphysical Clue Falling Apart Obstinacy

Author:Jasper Johns

“Everybody is of course free to interpret the work in his own way. I think seeing a picture is one thing and interpreting it is another.”

Thinking Way Courses Seeing One Thing Interpreting

Author:Jasper Johns