Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror

Sept 29, 2021–Feb 13, 2022

All

9 / 13

Previous Next

Small

9

Jasper Johns is the rare contemporary artist who has produced diminutive works throughout his entire career. Although almost all of them relate to larger, better-known examples, they are not studies but works of art in their own right. Some feature his most important motifs, including flags and numbers, symbols that have no fixed scale or actual size. Others are tiny reproductions of works in different mediums, such as Johns’s drawings after the paintings Three Flags (1958) and Souvenir 2 (1964). At times, he has been inspired by specific materials, including a baby announcement on which he painted a flag or a drawing on Shrinky Dink, a craft plastic that shrinks when heated in the oven. Spanning 1954 to 2010, the miniature works in this gallery present a kind of retrospective within the retrospective. Their minute and deliberate touch invites intimate thought and attention.

  • Loosely painted American flag, with names showing through from beneath the paint, with a fragment of white ribbon stretching out above the flag.
    Loosely painted American flag, with names showing through from beneath the paint, with a fragment of white ribbon stretching out above the flag.

    Jasper Johns, Flag, 1957. Oil and graphite pencil on paper, 3 1/8 × 3 7/8 in. (7.9 × 9.8 cm). Collection of Virginia Cowles Schroth. © 2021 Jasper Johns / VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Jamie Stukenberg, Professional Graphics, Rockford, Illinois

  • Blue-and-yellow target against red background.
    Blue-and-yellow target against red background.

    Jasper Johns, Target, 1957. Encaustic and collage on canvas mounted on cardboard, 7 3/8 × 7 1/4 in. (18.7 × 18.4 cm). Private collection. © 2021 Jasper Johns / VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph courtesy the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, New York

  • A canvas painted with thick, gray paint, with a number "2" subtly scratched out in the center.
    A canvas painted with thick, gray paint, with a number "2" subtly scratched out in the center.

    Jasper Johns, Figure 2, 1959. Encaustic and collage on canvas, 3 1/8 × 2 3/4 in. (7.9 × 7 cm). Private collection. © 2021 Jasper Johns / VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph courtesy the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, New York

  • Series of black-and-white linear rectangles with a medallion in the lower left corner, featuring a portrait of a male face in the center and the words "RED YELLOW BLUE" around its edge.
    Series of black-and-white linear rectangles with a medallion in the lower left corner, featuring a portrait of a male face in the center and the words "RED YELLOW BLUE" around its edge.

    Jasper Johns, Souvenir 2, 1965. Graphite pencil, graphite wash, and collage on paper, 8 3/8 × 6 1/4 in. (21.3 × 15.9 cm). Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Michael D. Eisner. Private collection. © 2021 Jasper Johns / VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Glenn Steigelman

  • Abstract rectangular composition of blue, black, gray, and white geometric color planes, with words and symbols embedded into the image.
    Abstract rectangular composition of blue, black, gray, and white geometric color planes, with words and symbols embedded into the image.

    Jasper Johns, Untitled (Blue), 1981. Watercolor and graphite pencil on paper, 8 1/2 × 6 in. (21.6 × 15.2 cm). Collection of Maxine Groffsky and Winthrop Knowlton. © 2021 Jasper Johns / VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

  • Black, purple, and white drawing dominated by the central figure of a torment crouched person inside the borders of a larger silhouette of a child, surrounded by purple fingerprints, scribbles, stars, and a geometric pattern along the bottom edge of the composition.
    Black, purple, and white drawing dominated by the central figure of a torment crouched person inside the borders of a larger silhouette of a child, surrounded by purple fingerprints, scribbles, stars, and a geometric pattern along the bottom edge of the composition.

    Jasper Johns, Untitled, 2010. Black ink and colored ink on plastic, 4 × 3 1/4 in. (10.2 × 8.3 cm). Collection of Matthew Marks. © 2021 Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Ronald Amstutz, courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

Artists

Explore works from this exhibition
in the Whitney's collection

View 101 works

On the Hour

A 30-second online art project:
Maya Man, A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City

Learn more about this project

Learn more at whathappensontheship.space/artport

On the Hour projects can contain motion and sound. To respect your accessibility settings autoplay is disabled.