Jasper Johns: Light Bulb (Hardcover)

by Hugh Davies (Author), Stephanie Hanor (Author), Mark Lancaster (Author), Jasper Johns (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The underlying subject matter of Jasper Johns' work is not the object represented, but the investigation of how we perceive, label and categorize objects. Published to accompany a traveling exhibition of the same name with stops in Princeton, San Diego and Seattle, Jasper Johns: Light Bulb examines the significance of this common object as an image the artist explored for more than 20 years. The light bulb is the subject of Johns' first sculpture, "Light Bulb I," created in 1958, the year of Johns' first exhibition in New York at the fledgling Leo Castelli Gallery, and has appeared in various media throughout his long career. Bringing together for the first time all of Johns' light bulb sculptures and related drawings and prints--including several drawings and modified prints from the artist's own collection--this volume offers an unparalleled opportunity to examine Johns' practice through a single image and reveals significant relationships between his two- and three-dimensional work. It includes an essay by Dr. Stephanie Hanor, Senior Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and a personal narrative on the creation of one of Johns' light bulb sculptures by the artist and former Johns studio assistant Mark Lancaster.

About the Author
Jasper Johns was born in 1930 in South Carolina, where he grew up wanting to be an artist. Emerging in the late 50s as a force in the American art scene, his richly worked paintings of maps, flags, and targets led the artistic community away from abstract expressionism toward a new emphasis on the concrete, paving the way for Pop Art and minimalism. The artist lives and works in New York.

"Hugh M. Davies has been the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, since 1983. He completed his doctorate at Princeton University, where his dissertation on Francis Bacon was published by Garland, and he has authored numerous exhibition catalogues."

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; illustrated edition edition (November 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0934418691
• ISBN-13: 978-0934418690
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #841,627 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else to it.", March 25, 2009

By	Claude Reich (Florianopolis, Brazil and Paris, France) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The catalogue for a traveling exhibition (Princeton,San Diego and Seattle) centered on a recurring image in Johns's work, the light bulb,this small book is an interesting study on the way the artist manages to appropriate a mundane household fixture, through sculpture, drawing or print, and turn it into an icon of our society. The introductory essay is an enlightening study that shows how Johns succeeded in transcending his main inspirational source, i.e.Marcel Duchamp and dadaism, by using a common object "that the mind already knows" and turning, moulding, magnifying it into a work of art. Good-quality illustrations add to the value of this book, which is a worthwhile addition, albeit a small one, to the literature on the artist.