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Quote by 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.”

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

Space Painting Manipulation

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“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.”

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“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

“I'm not looking for images, They just appear and take on an interest. Sometimes you look at a thing and it has no interest and then you see it in a different way and it has another meaning. Or something that was of no use will become useful.”

Way Looks Different Sometimes Use Interest Different Ways

Author:Jasper Johns

“I’m interested in things which suggest the world rather than express the personality... The most conventional thing, the most ordinary - it seems to me that those things can be dealt with without having to judge them; they seem to me to exist as clear facts, not involving aesthetic hierarchy.”

World Facts Seems Clear Judging Personality Ordinary Aesthetic Conventional Hierarchy Involving

Author:Jasper Johns