Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror

Sept 29, 2021–Feb 13, 2022

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According to What, 1964

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In the early 1960s, Jasper Johns embarked on a new type of large-scale painting that was both synthetic and generative. While most of his prior works had focused on a singular image or concept, he started compiling multiple elements and techniques to create sprawling, self-referential mash-ups. Yet these paintings functioned not only as provisional anthologies but also as fruitful springboards for future works, sometimes in other mediums.

This gallery features a constellation of objects centered around the monumental According to What (1964), in order to illuminate Johns’s obsessive process of working into and out of a key painting. The expansive canvas gathers incidents found in earlier ones, some on view here, such as hinged lettering and flat rectangles of primary color embedded amid splashy brushwork. Many of the details of According to What and its rebus-like structure pay homage to Marcel Duchamp, whose silhouette hides behind a latched panel at the bottom of the stretcher and who made similarly puzzling objects to decode. For Johns, the French-born artist was a powerful role model who moved art “into a field where language, thought, and vision act upon one another.” Johns learned of Duchamp’s work when critics compared his early flags and targets to the found objects of the elder artist’s famous readymades. The two met in New York in the 1960s and Johns later collected some of Duchamp’s work, which became a lifelong source of inspiration.

The corresponding gallery at the Philadelphia Museum of Art focuses on Untitled, 1972.

  • A tall rectangular composition, bisected vertically by a thick black line, with the words "RED YELLOW BLUE" mirrored on either side of the dividing line; splotches of red, yellow, orange, blue, and purple break up the gray, white, and black background.
    A tall rectangular composition, bisected vertically by a thick black line, with the words "RED YELLOW BLUE" mirrored on either side of the dividing line; splotches of red, yellow, orange, blue, and purple break up the gray, white, and black background.

    Jasper Johns, Field Painting, 1963–64. Oil on canvas with objects (two panels), 72 × 36 3/4 in. (182.9 × 93.3 cm) overall. Collection of the artist; on long-term loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. © 2021 Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph courtesy the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, New York

  • A series of painted vertical panels—including a black-and-white gradient and a color bar in the middle of the rectangular composition—with objects attached, among them an upside-down chair, three-dimensional letters, and a newspaper clipping.
    A series of painted vertical panels—including a black-and-white gradient and a color bar in the middle of the rectangular composition—with objects attached, among them an upside-down chair, three-dimensional letters, and a newspaper clipping.

    Jasper Johns, According to What, 1964. Oil, charcoal, and graphite on canvas with objects (six panels), 88 × 191 3/4 in. (223.5 × 487 cm) overall. The Middleton Family Collection. © 2021 Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art Photo Studio; Joseph Hu

  • Rectangular sketched composition of connected vertical panels incorporating different patterns, shading, and recognizable elements, including the mirrored words "RED YELLOW BLUE" and part of an upside-down clothes hanger.
    Rectangular sketched composition of connected vertical panels incorporating different patterns, shading, and recognizable elements, including the mirrored words "RED YELLOW BLUE" and part of an upside-down clothes hanger.

    Jasper Johns, According to What, 1969. Graphite pencil and graphite wash on paper, 29 1/2 × 41 1/4 in. (74.9 × 104.8 cm). Collection of the artist. © 2021 Jasper Johns / VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Jamie Stukenberg, Professional Graphics, Rockford, Illinois

  • Abstract, irregular, linear shape in the center of a light brown background.
    Abstract, irregular, linear shape in the center of a light brown background.

    Jasper Johns, M.D., 1964. Collage and graphite pencil on stencil board, 22 × 18 in. (55.9 × 45.7 cm). Collection of the artist. © 2021 Jasper Johns / VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Jamie Stukenberg, Professional Graphics, Rockford, Illinois

  • Abstract composition of an upside-down sketched chair with a single leg seated in it, which spills over its background of rectangles treated with mottled white and black, and blue-gray gradient.
    Abstract composition of an upside-down sketched chair with a single leg seated in it, which spills over its background of rectangles treated with mottled white and black, and blue-gray gradient.

    Jasper Johns, Fragment—According to What: Leg and Chair, 1971. Lithograph: one stone, six aluminum plates, 35 × 30 in. (88.9 × 76.2 cm). Printed by Kenneth Tyler, James Webb; published by Gemini G.E.L. Edition no. 11/68. Philadelphia Museum of Art; purchased with the Lola Downin Peck Fund (by exchange) and gift (by exchange) of the estate of Mrs. Charles M. Lea. © 2021 Jasper Johns and Gemini G.E.L. / VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph courtesy the Philadelphia Museum of Art

  • Linear drawing of a three-dimensional letter "U", turned sideways and with its lower prong bent at a sharp angle.
    Linear drawing of a three-dimensional letter "U", turned sideways and with its lower prong bent at a sharp angle.

    Jasper Johns, Fragment—According to What: Bent “U”, 1971. Lithograph: one stone, three aluminum plates, 25 × 20 in. (63.5 × 50.8 cm). Printed by Kenneth Tyler, Ron Adams; published by Gemini G.E.L. Edition no. 47/69. Philadelphia Museum of Art; purchased with the Lola Downin Peck Fund (by exchange) and gift (by exchange) of the estate of Mrs. Charles M. Lea, 1986-60-4. © 2021 Jasper Johns and Gemini G.E.L. / VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph courtesy the Philadelphia Museum of Art

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