Jasper Johns: Numbers
by Roberta Bernstein, Jasper Johns, Carter E. Foster, Katharine Lee Reid
Category: Art

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. And then some. Between 1954 and 1960, Jasper Johns developed his well-known repertory of flat images, including flags, targets, alphabets, words, maps, and numbers--subjects drawn not from popular culture so much as from human consciousness. His explorations of these familiar symbols drew attention to how reality is represented through such visual signs, and how we interpret them. This exhibition catalogue accompanies the first show to concentrate in depth on a single subject by Johns--Numbers--and it brings together painting, drawing, collage, and printmaking from all periods of his career, focusing on the years between 1955 and 1979. Included are an in-depth essay by curator Roberta Bernstein, who has written extensively on Johns, color plates of all the works in the exhibition, illustrations of other important works, and a list of all works by Johns on the subject, organized by theme.