Nationality
American
Artist Dates
b. 1930
Preview
Date of Work
1973
Medium
Four-color lithograph printed in color on Arches paper
Edition #
71/100
Signature
Lower right
Height
27 1/4" (framed)
Width
19 7/8" (framed)
Collection/Provenance
Published by The Committee to Endow a Chair in Honor of Meyer Schapiro (1904-1996) at Columbia University.
Art & Design Study Collection
Status
Stored: R25
Location
UND Art Collections Repository
Artist Bio
Jasper Johns is an important American artist, who was associated with an art movement that is called neo-dada. During the 1950s his art often incorporated found objects.
Johns also collaborated with neo-dadaist painter Robert Rauschenberg, dance choreographer Merce Cunningham, and music composer John Cage on interdisciplinary performances.
Additional Information
Jasper Johns (b. 1930) was interested in fussing art with aspects of popular culture. To achieve this objective, he produced series of paintings representing targets, the American flag, and other subjects appropriated from "real life." Like Robert Rauschenberg, Johns can be described as a Neo-Dadaist.
The artist introduced the subject of the target in his art beginning in the mid 1950s. One question that may arise when looking at Johns’ image is whether to perceived it as a representation (that is, as a picture of an actual target) or as a pure abstraction. If the former, then it is not too unlike subject found in Warhol's Pop Art; but if the latter, it may be better understood more along the lines of Abstract Expressionism. The artist has never provided a clear guideline for his viewers to follow in regard to his work's meaning.
This artwork is from a portfolio of original prints published in recognition of Meyer Schapiro (1904-1996), a distinguished art historian who was very much appreciated by major contemporary artists of his day.
In 1974, a committee was formed to establish a Chair in Art History at Columbia University in Schapiro's honor. The portfolio, published in an edition of 100, was produced to raise funds to support the Chair. UND’s set of portfolio prints are numbered 71/100.