Jasper Johns: An Allegory of Painting, 1955-1965 [Hardcover]

Mr. Jeffrey Weiss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 2007

Jasper Johns (b. 1930) is one of the most significant figures in the history of postwar art. His work from 1955 to 1965 was pivotal, exercising an enormous impact on the subsequent development of pop, minimalism, and conceptual art in the United States and Europe. This is the first publication to approach Johns’s work of this ten-year period through a thematic framework. It examines the artist's interest in the condition of painting as a medium, a practice, and an instrument of encoded meaning through several interrelated motifs: the target, the “device,” the naming of colors, and the imprint of the body.
In this handsome book, leading scholars, a conservator, and a contemporary artist consider Johns’s activity in this critical decade and discuss many of his iconic paintings, such as Target with Four Faces (1955), Diver (1962), Periscope (Hart Crane) (1963), and Arrive-Depart (1963). Their new critical and historical perspectives are grounded in an unusually close visual and material analysis of Johns's work.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Rather than restating the fact of Johns' enormous influence during this highly productive decade, Weiss demonstrates it through a discussion of Johns's art-making process in this hefty monograph, produced in association with the National Gallery of Art. In five essays, Weiss and company focus on four "motifs"-"the target; the 'device' (the pivotal slat used to scrape paint); the stenciled naming of colors; and the trace of imprint of the body"-with illustrations throughout and a long central section devoted entirely to artwork. In Weiss's essay, he traces the dynamics of Johns's working life-in its process and context-investigating among other aspects the relationship between Johns's work and his contemporary Jackson Pollock's: "Pollock's compass is an instrument of release. ... Johns' compass is an instrument of containment, the body compressed into the mechanical 'actuality' of two-dimensional space." Not all of the essays are so tightly observed, as in Kathryn Tuma's "The Color and Compass of Things," which tends toward vague consideration of Johns's "playful verbal wit" and "highly sophisticated sense of visual irony." Despite the occasional art-class generalization, this volume has enough detail and richly reproduced artwork to make it a winning, illuminating addition to any art library. 80 halftone, 170 color illustrations.
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About the Author

Jeffrey Weiss is Curator and Head of the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. John Elderfield is Chief Curator of the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.  Carol Mancusi-Ungaro is Director of Conservation at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Robert Morris is an American artist and contemporary of Johns. Kathryn Tuma is Assistant Professor of Modern Art at Johns Hopkins University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (January 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300121415
• ISBN-13: 978-0300121414
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 8.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #356,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top-quality illustrations, April 7, 2007

By 

Claude Reich (Florianopolis, Brazil and Paris, France) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jasper Johns: An Allegory of Painting, 1955-1965 (Hardcover)

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...).

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Targets, Flags, and More, March 18, 2007

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Z. Edelson - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jasper Johns: An Allegory of Painting, 1955-1965 (Hardcover)

An excellent and broad-spectrum catalog 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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars beautiful reproductions, December 17, 2007

By 

J. Hill "digitaleonardo" (Atlanta, Georgia United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jasper Johns: An Allegory of Painting, 1955-1965 (Hardcover)

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.