Top Jasper Johns Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

Jasper Johns Biography

Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and pop art. He is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related topics. Johns' works regularly receive millions of dollars at sale and auction, including a reported $110 million sale in 2010. At multiple times works by Johns have held the title of most paid for a work by a living artist.

Read about Jasper Johns in Wikipedia

Random Authors

Jasper Johns Quotes

Art is either a complaint or appeasement.

Appeasement, Art, Art Is, Complaint

When something is new to us, we treat it as an experience. We feel that our senses are awake and clear. We are alive.

Alive, Awake, Experience, Treat, Treats

Generally, I am opposed to painting which is concerned with conceptions of simplicity. Everything looks busy to me.

Simplicity, Looks, Painting, Opposed, Everything

One wants one's work to be the world, but of course it's never the world. The work is in the world; it never contains the whole thing.

Course, Courses, Thing, Want, World

Merce is my favorite artist in any field.

Artist, Favorite Artist, Field, Fields, Merce

I am just trying to find a way to make pictures.

Make, Pictures, Trying, Way

I don't want my work to be an exposure of my feelings.

Exposure, Feelings, Want, Work

Make something, a kind of object, which as it changes or falls apart (dies as it were) or increases in its parts (grows as it were) offers no clue as to what its state or form or nature was at any previous time. Physical and Metaphysical. Obstinacy. Could this be a useful object?

Apart, Clue, Fall, Kind, Object, Useful

I think that one wants from a painting a sense of life. The final suggestion, the final statement, has to be not a deliberate statement but a helpless statement. It has to be what you can't avoid saying.

Deliberate, Finals, Statement, Suggestion, Suggestions, Thinking

Intention involves such a small fragment of our consciousness and of our mind and of our life.

Consciousness, Intention, Mind, Small

I often find that having an idea in my head prevents me from doing something else. Working is therefore a way of getting rid of an idea.

Having, Ideas, Prevents, Rid, Way, Working

I have no ideas about what the paintings imply about the world. I don't think that's a painter's business. He just paints paintings without a conscious reason.

Ideas, Paints, Reason, Thinking, World

Object in
and space - the first impulse may be to give the object - a position - to place the object. (The object had a position to begin with. ) Next - to change the position of the object. - Rauschenberg's early sculptures - A board with some rocks on it. The rocks can be anywhere on the board. - Cage's Japanese rock garden - The rocks can be anywhere (within the garden).

Garden, Rocks, Space, Change, Anywhere, Position

I'm not looking for images, They just appear and take on an interest. Sometimes you look at a thing and it has no interest and then you see it in a different way and it has another meaning. Or something that was of no use will become useful.

Different, Looks, Take, Use, Useful

There may or may not be an idea, and the meaning may just be that the painting exists.

Idea, Ideas, May, Meaning, Painting

A picture ought to be looked at the same way you look at a radiator.

Looked, Looks, Ought, Picture, Same, Way

Bend color names which should be made of neon or copper tubing. Place an object on a surface - trace the object - then bend the object - leaving some part of it attached.

Attached, Color, Leaving, Names, Surface, Tubing

A-not-complete-unit, or a new unit. The elements in the 3 parts should neither fit nor not fit together. One would like not to be led. Avoid the idea of a puzzle which could be solved. Remove the signs of "thought. " It is not "thought" which needs showing.

Idea, Ideas, Needs, Solved, Thought, Together

Old art offers just as good a criticism of new art as new art offers of old.

Art, Criticism, Offers, Old

When you work you learn something about what you are doing and you develop habits and procedures out of what you're doing.

Develop, Habit, Learn, Procedures, Work

1