Jasper Johns- FIRST ONE MAN SHOW REVIEW, 1958
ARTS Magazine (Arts Digest), Review by Robert Rosenblum (art critic), Exhibition at The Leo Castelli Gallery NYC (4 E. 77), Jan. 13-Feb. 1, with Articles & Reviews- Josef Albers André Derain Helen Frankenthaler Arshile Gorky Louise Nevelson Francis Picabia Mark Rothko,
14 × 10 in. (35.6 × 25.4 cm.)
Condition:
Excellent- slight wear to covers/age toning.
Provenance:
VRW Hemphill Collection, NY
Note:
Review by Robert Rosenblum- "Jasper Johns: Of the many things that upset preconceptions in this FIRST ONE-MAN SHOW there are subjects themselves, for Johns is dedicated to images which outside picture galleries evoke nonesthetic reactions. There is the American Flag, which one respects or salutes; targets, which one aims at and hopes to hit: numbers, which one counts with; and letters, which one uses to make words to be read. To see these commonplaces faithfully reproduced in sizes from large to small is disconcerting enough, but not so bewildering as the visual and intellectual impact they carry. His theme selected, Johns will then manipulate it in multiple guises, so that the American flag, for example, may appear in its nude red-white-and blue state; or against an orange field whose color vibrations should give Rothko or Albers pause, or as a monumental canvas entirely in white. The target offers a comparably dazzling theme and variations, in one case offering a peep show which even imposes a moral decision upon the observer; and the letters and numbers look as though they were uncovered in the office of a printer who so loved their shapes and mysterious symbolism that he could not commit them to everyday use. To explain the fascination of these works, one might refer to their disarming rearrangements of customary esthetic and practical responses, but one should also mention the commanding sensuous presence of their primer-like imagery, which has the rudimentary, irreducible potency of the best of Abstract Expressionism. And not least, there is Johns' elegant craftsmanship (in general, a finely nuanced encaustic). which lends these pictures the added poignancy of a beloved, handmade transcription of unloved, machine-made images. In short, Johns' work, like all genuinely new art, assaults and enlivens the mind and the eyes with the exhilaration of discovery. Castelli, Jan. 20-Feb. 8)-R.R." Note: "No artist was ever catapulted into fame more suddenly than Johns. His 1958 exhibition at the Castelli Gallery in New York, which brought together paintings of targets, numbers and the American flag, was seen as a brilliant assault on the high-minded strivings of the Abstract Expressionists who then dominated the art scene. What could a picture of a target, even if it was nicely painted in lush green strokes, reveal about the agony of existence? Absolutely nothing, and that was the point. As Johns himself later stated, ''I don't want my work to be an exposure of my feelings.'' New York Times, 1988- https://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/19/magazine/the-unflagging-artistry-of-jasper-johns.html