Jasper Johns Prints Go On View At The Parrish

Beginning April 24, the Parrish Art Museum presents “An Art of Changes: Jasper Johns Prints, 1960-2018,” a comprehensive survey of the artist’s six-decade practice in printmaking, highlighting his experiments with familiar, abstract and personal imagery that play with memory and visual perception in endlessly original ways. The exhibition, which runs through July 10, includes some 70 works in intaglio, lithography, woodcut, linoleum cut, screen printing and lead relief — all drawn from the Walker Art Center’s comprehensive collection of the artist’s prints. “An Art of Changes” continues the recognition of Johns’s 90th birthday, as well as his stature today as one the 20th century’s greatest American artists.

“We are thrilled to present this exhibition at the Parrish,” said the Parrish’s Alicia G. Longwell, Ph.D., Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Chief Curator, Art and Education.“Johns’s innovations in printmaking — a major focus of his work for decades — are unrivaled. ‘An Art of Changes’ presents an in-depth investigation into his unique processes and the evolution of recurring themes throughout his career.”

When Johns’s paintings of flags and targets debuted in 1958, they brought him instant acclaim and established him as a critical link between Abstract Expressionism and Pop art. In the ensuing 60 years, Johns (American, b. 1930) has continued to astonish viewers with the beauty and complexity of his paintings, drawings, sculpture, and prints.

Organized in four thematic sections, “An Art of Changes” follows Johns through the years as he revises and recycles key motifs over time, including the American flag, numerals, and the English alphabet, which he describes as “things the mind already knows.” Some works explore artists’ tools, materials, and techniques. Others delve into signature aspects of Johns’s distinctive mark-making, including flagstones and hatch marks; later pieces teem with autobiographical imagery. To underscore Johns’s fascination with the changes that occur when an image is reworked in another medium, the prints will be augmented by a small selection of paintings and sculptures.

Organized by the Walker Art Center of Minneapolis and curated by guest curator Joan Rothfuss, previous stops on the exhibition tour included Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Tampa Art Museum, Florida, and Grand Rapids Art Museum, Michigan.

The Parrish Art Museum is located at 279 Montauk Highway, Water Mill. For more information, visit parrishart.org.