The Week Junior - USA (2021-11-19)

Arts and entertainment

20

T

he Whitney Museum in New York City and the

Philadelphia Museum of Art have teamed up

for Mind/Mirror, an exhibition featuring a lifetime

of work by Jasper Johns, one of the most famous

living American artists. Each museum has

diff erent paintings, sculptures, prints,

and drawings, but they are

grouped to refl ect the same

ideas in Johns’ work. A goal of

the exhibition is to introduce a

new generation to his art.

Now age 91, Johns fi rst

became famous in the 1950s. At

the time, well-known artists were

mostly making abstract (not realistic) art. Many

of his pieces focused on what he called “things

the mind already knows,” such as maps and fl ags.

“That was a radical idea,” Whitney curator (a

person who selects art) Scott Rothkopf told The

Week Junior. At the Whitney, one of the

pieces on display is Three Flags, which

is three panels painted with the

American fl ag, stacked on top of one

another. “It’s like half a painting, half

a sculpture,” Rothkopf said.

Because Johns used familiar

images, he pushed people to look at

them diff erently, Leigh Dale, coordinator

of family programs at the Philadelphia Museum

of Art, told The Week Junior. “Instead of thinking

about what this is a painting of, we’re thinking

about how his painting was made,” she said.

Johns is known for challenging himself

as an artist. He often recycled images using

diff erent colors or materials. Dale said that his

“messy artistic practice” shows that trying out

ideas is more important than perfection. She

hopes visitors will be “inspired to experiment

in their own artwork, try diff erent things, push

boundaries, and keep the conversation going.”

To watch a video about Johns and the

exhibition, visit tinyurl.com/TWJUS-Johns.

The Week Junior • November 19, 2021

Locations

Places where

Jasper Johns

lived often

inspired him.

While in Japan,

he made a series

of crosshatch

paintings, prints,

drawings, and

silkscreens titled

Usuyuki.

Objects

Johns sometimes

attached items to

his paintings.

Examples include

a broom, rulers,

balls, and fake

body parts. At

times, he used a

wood slat to move

paint on a canvas,

and then he

attached the wood

to the painting.

Numbers

Johns has

created more

than 170 pieces

of art using

numbers. In

some works, the

numbers are

layered on top of

one another. In

others, the

numbers are

arranged in rows

or on a grid.

3 themes in Johns’ art

Spider-Man

confers with

Mysterio

Art exhibition in two cities

Works by American artist Jasper Johns are on display in a show shared by museums in New York City and Philadelphia.

Jasper Johns

Usuyuki Fool’s House 0 Through 9

Art by

Jasper Johns

MAJOR

HONOR

In 2011, Jasper Johns

received the Presidential

Medal of Freedom, the

highest honor given

to a US citizen.