Jasper Johns: Gray

published Dec 23, 2007
Jasper Johns Gray
As one of the most acclaimed and influential living artists, Jasper Johns has been the subject of numerous exhibitions, many of which have explored his signature use of flags, numbers, and other emblems.

This exhibition emerges from broader studies of Johns's approach to form, examining for the first time the artist's use of gray in his paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings from 1955 to the present.

Featuring more than 130 works and including major new works that have never been exhibited publicly, the exhibition tracks Johns's application of gray for more than five decades-an investigation that provides a framework for understanding the development of the artist's entire oeuvre.

Every one of Johns's major iconic, serialized forms has been, at one stage or another, articulated in gray.

The intellectual and emotional significance of this color in his work has changed remarkably since 1955, when he used it initially as a statement of skepticism, quietude, or anticipation.

Gray has since evolved in Johns's work as an agent in a profound examination of the very meaning of color itself.

The predominance of gray in his recent Catenary series, which self-consciously summarizes the artist's career, takes on new meaning in the context of this exhibition's thesis.

Gray is further considered as a material condition.