MINNEAPOLIS.- American painter Jasper Johns’ now-iconic images of flags and targets of the late 1950s brought him critical acclaim and instant celebrity in the vigorous art scene of postwar America. Those images, depicted in an intentionally uninflected way, were radically different from the emotionally charged works of the Abstract Expressionists, and they offered a new way to think about the function and practice of art. In the 50 years since his first flag painting, Johns has continued to astonish viewers with the beauty and intelligence of his work. The Walker Art Center exhibition "Past Things and Present: Jasper Johns since 1983," on view November 9–February 14, features nearly 100 paintings, prints, and drawings exploring his art of the past two decades—a period in which he has applied his virtuoso technique and incisive intelligence to a wide range of arresting new imagery, much of it intensely personal, melancholic, and even surreal. Following its premiere in Minneapolis, the exhibition travels to Greenville, South Carolina, Edinburgh, Scotland, and Valencià, Spain.  

Jasper Johns was born in 1930 in Augusta, Georgia, and raised in South Carolina. He moved to New York in the early 1950s and became friendly with a number of artists—notably Robert Rauschenberg, John Cage, and Merce Cunningham—who were inventing ways to introduce the experiences of daily life into their art, music, and dance works. Early on, Johns’ images included what he called “things the mind already knows”: commonly seen symbols such as the U.S. flag, alphabet letters, and numerals; household or studio objects such as paintbrushes, brooms, tableware, and clothes hangers; and “found” images that he encountered by chance and then incorporated into his work. Personal content, while present, was often hidden within these impersonal images or buried beneath their highly tactile surfaces.  

During the early 1980s his approach shifted, and viewers began to see a much more personal iconography in his work. There were depictions of things present in his studio or home, allusions to his childhood and souvenirs of his family, evocations of the spaces in which he lives and works, and quotations from artworks—his own and others’. He acknowledged this change in 1984: “In my early work I tried to hide my personality, my psychological state, my emotions. . . . I sort of stuck to my guns for a while, but eventually it seemed like a losing battle. Finally, one must simply drop the reserve.” 

"Past Things and Present: Jasper Johns since 1983" is an opportunity to study this recent material on its own. It focuses on motifs introduced into the artist’s work since 1983, and has at its core nearly all the prints made during the period, which are drawn from the Walker’s complete archive of his graphic works. The balance of the exhibition is comprised of paintings and drawings that expand the conversation around these motifs and weave in imagery familiar from his earlier work. Visitors will find several works based on the important 1983 canvas "Ventriloquist," which is on loan to the exhibition from the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. "The Seasons" paintings of 1985–1986 are represented by the beautiful "Winter" (1986) as well as several prints and drawings that treat the overall theme, including four new etchings inspired by poems written by Andrew Shapiro. Johns’ use of traced outlines of works by Holbein, Grünewald, and others is explored in numerous objects, including the encaustic-and-sand painting "Green Angel" (1990) from the Walker’s collection. Gorgeous monochromatic images from the so-called "Catenary" series of the late 1990s and early 2000s are included, as well as several very recent works that incorporate the outlines of a painting by Manet. Paintings and drawings have been loaned from many important public and private collections—including Johns’ own collection—and several of the works in the show have never before been publicly exhibited.  

Catalogue - A beautifully illustrated volume with full-color reproductions of all the works on view contains a foreword by Walker director Kathy Halbreich and essays by exhibition curator Joan Rothfuss. Curator, Permanent Collection; art historian Richard Shiff, a noted Johns scholar and director of the Center for the Study of Modernism at the University of Texas; and scholar Victor Stoichita, professor of contemporary art history at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. The catalogue is distributed by D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc., 155 Sixth Avenue, Second Floor, New York, NY 10013, 800.338.2665 (phone), 212.627.9484 (fax), and is available at the Walker Art Center Shop, 612.375.7638 (phone), 612.375.7565 (fax). Available in November; $34.95 ($31.46 Walker members).  

Commemorative Poster  - To mark the show and celebrate the Walker’s print archive, Jasper Johns created a poster that incorporates an old family photograph—a motif he has used in several recent prints and paintings. The poster, an offset lithograph, was printed at Universal Limited Art Editions (ULAE), the legendary workshop that published Johns’ first prints in the 1960s. $30 ($27 Walker members). All proceeds support the artistic and educational programs of the Walker Art Center in the visual, performing, and media arts.  

Funding - "Past Things and Present: Jasper Johns since 1983" is made possible by generous support from Judy and Kenneth Dayton, Martha and Bruce Atwater, Margaret and Angus Wurtele, The Broad Art Foundation, and the Fifth Floor Foundation. Promotional assistance provided by MPLS.ST.PAUL Magazine.  

Major support for Walker Art Center programs is provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature, The Wallace Foundation, The Bush Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation through the Doris Duke Fund for Jazz and Dance and the Doris Duke Performing Arts Endowment Fund, Target Stores, Marshall Field’s, and Mervyn’s with support from the Target Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, General Mills Foundation, Coldwell Banker Burnet, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts, American Express Philanthropic Program, The Regis Foundation, The Cargill Foundation, U.S. Bank, Star Tribune Foundation, 3M, and the members of the Walker Art Center.  

Tour Schedule : Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, South Carolina (March 7–May 30, 2004); Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Scotland (July 10–September 19, 2004); IVAM Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, Valencià, Spain (October 7, 2004 –January 2, 2005)