Artist of the week: Jasper Johns
ARTinvestment.RU   28 октября 2013

Since the late 1980s, his "false start" 19 years held the record auction price for the work of living artists, and he is today - the most expensive painting live the master, sold in a private transaction. Why not a reason to talk about the auth

In the ranking of the auction living artists he ranked third, and in the auction ranking of living artists, if we took him to be, he would have missed the forward of German Gerhard Richter (Jeff Koons all-таки more sculptor). He — Jasper Johns, and he was born on 15 may 1930 in Augusta, Georgia.

About the childhood of John's little known. Parents divorced when he was very young, and all his childhood was spent traveling around South Carolina, between his mother's house in Columbia and Allendale, where he lived with his grandparents, and basically engaged in his education. On Allendale Sam Jones remembers as a place "where there were no artists and no art." Future profession, Jones chose five years, and then his decision strictly adhered to. After graduating high school in the town of Sumter, he joined the faculty of arts of the University of South Carolina in Columbia. After the first three semesters of art teacher persuaded him to continue his education in new-Йорке; there, listening to the Council, 18-летний Jasper Johns and went in 1948.

the First time he visited a lot of exhibitions and even in 1949 he studied for a semester at the Parsons school of design. However, in 1950 (according to others, 1951) year Jones joined the army (the US then participated in the Korean war, and a General Patriotic sentiment swept a large portion of society) and served two years, first based in South Carolina, then — in the city of Sendai in Japan.

In 1953-м Jones returned to new-Йорк and took up art again. In new-Йорке he quickly joined the advanced artistic circles and started Dating with the most outstanding representatives of the arts. Among his closest friends was the artist Robert Rauschenberg, composer John cage, choreographer Merce Cunningham etc. Friendship with Rauschenberg started a long and fruitful one. He gravitated he and Jones instilled an interest in abstract expressionism, minimalism, conceptual art and pop-арту. Jones managed to work in all these areas, and for 8 years when he and Rauschenberg shared a Studio, there were even a few joint projects like window-dressing "Tiffany".

having worked in almost all the new artistic currents of new-Йорка, Jones has not ceased to look for new ideas and ways of expression. In the early 1950-х he went to Philadelphia to get acquainted with the works of Marcel Duchamp. The idea of Redi-мейда — use ready-made objects, often unrelated to art as the actual works of art or their parts — were interested in Jones and became another component of its own artistic language of the artist. Later, Jones designed the sets for the performance of Merce Cunningham's Walkaround Time (1968), based on the work of Duchamp's "Large glass" (The Large Glass), seen in a Philadelphia Museum.

Jones a close idea of the connection of everyday life and eternity. In his early work with the naked eye can see the process of turning ordinary things into a work of art — transition from our world to the world "beyond the canvas". It is widely used technique of collage, creating a picture, on the one hand, the figurative and the other — abstract. As correctly pointed out by one of the critics, herepresents something concrete, familiar to the audience of their outlines, but does not exist in the real world, because the figure or the letter flag or map — is the concept of duality. By the end of 1950-х in his works of pure abstraction ("Mixing", "False" etc.) are combined with pseudoobstruction, i.e. realistic images of objects — symbols of abstract concepts (e.g., flag or number).

Generally, the flag — is one of the main characters in the works of Jones. Many "flags", written in the mid 1950-х — the early 1960-х today refers to the top of the artist's work and is called among the most significant of his works. The beginning of a series put large-format painting "Flag" (1954-1955). This painting is an exact copy of one side of the American flag, and if the canvas removed from the stretcher and attach, for example, to the wall, then it can be used as a flag. Work, so to speak, ready-мейд Vice versa — work will be subject to, characteristics that are not related to the world of art. The artist thus removed from the object, bringing his image to the level of the absolute: the work has nothing of the personality of the author, his opinion is not expressed even in perspective, only the subject — character ideas. Work of the painter, this picture is only insofar as it is painted in oil on canvas. The series continued with "Monochrome flag" (1955) existing in white, red and blue versions, and in 1958, Jones created the "Three flags", where he imposed one on another, three identical, but different scales of the image. "I once had a dream that I was drawing the American flag, and the next day I did it — Jones said in an interview. — Drew first one, then another, and so it happened...," Jones began writing flags almost immediately upon his return from the army. He may have approached this subject under the influence of his military life, and the then political situation in the country, encouraging Americans to demonstrate their civil position and Patriotic feelings. But maybe his role is played and what your own name is Jones got in honor of the hero of the War for US independence (1775—1783) soldier William Jasper, raised the American flag over Fort Sullivan (in any case, such a version exists). Whatever it was, it was the images of the American flag made Jones the name of art and brought popularity.

In 1958, a workshop Rauschenberg came the famous gallerist Leo Castelli. Struck by the works of 28-летнего Jones, he some time later gave the then almost unknown artist solo exhibition. She, in turn, saw Alfred Barr, Director of the new-йоркского MOMA, organized the exhibition of Jones at the Museum. Exhibition at the MOMA created a furor on the artist talking across the country, and then in the world.

Flags, maps, targets, numbers and letters for a long time remained the main targets Jones, no matter what technology he worked. For some time Jones moved from painting to lithography, experimented with a maximum flattening of the figures, the simplification of shapes and overlay them on top of each other — in one study, for example, he depicted all 9 digits on top of each other. Surprisingly, Jones was not repeated, and these experiments are interesting for a variety of creative ideas with a limited number of objects.

In the mid 1960-х Jasper Johns took up sculpture. I wonder what changed the art form, but the principle has not changed: the artist depicts everyday objects with photographic precision, "dragging" them into the world of art, but nothing worth changing. Items can be any — from soup cans or light bulbs to a toothbrush, but they are always executed with stunning precision and in traditional sculpture materials — for example, in bronze.

In 1967, Jones tried his hand in book graphics and illustrated edition of his friend the poet Frank Ohara, and a few years later issued the book of another friend, writer Samuel Beckett.

In 1980-х changed the style and tone of his paintings: they are quieter — are now virtually gone of a contrasting color, a sharp rhythm and dynamics, there is a tendency towards monotone and even what-то sentimentality.

Jones Today lives in Connecticut in a converted farmhouse.

He is a recognized classic of abstract expressionism, the winner of many global awards in the field of art: from the Grand-при the Venice Biennale (1988) the Imperial prize of Japan (awards to artists "for their accomplishments, the international impact they have had in their art, the spiritual enrichment of the world community"), which he received in 1993. In 2011 the artist was awarded the Presidential medal of Freedom, awarded for contributions to the safety and protection of U.S. national interests, public and cultural life of the United States and the world (in 1985, this medal was awarded to Mother Teresa).

currently, the artist is not activism. His name soundsnow for the most part, or at auction, or scandalous publications related to his famous works. So, in February 2013 it became known that billionaire Henry Kravis sued the collector Donald Bryant-младшего. The bone of contention was Jones ' triptych "Tantric detail", bought them in 2008 from the artist with the condition of the further transfer of the MOMA. Kravis accused Bryant-младшего that, contrary to all agreements, decided to leave the triptych itself. A couple of months ago, in mid-August, the Prosecutor's office of the southern district of new-Йорка filed a journeyman painter James Meyer accused of stealing his pictures. According to the prosecution, Meyer stole 22 unfinished paintings by Jones, which he gave in his possession, and, acting as their owner sold them in the past 6 years. Apparently, being in the vicinity of the artist's works, people find it difficult to resist the temptation to take advantage of the growing demand and prices for his paintings.

Jones Investment potential is so great that even the crisis of 2008 and the General decline in the market, obviously, have had no impact on the dynamics of the sales of his works. They appeared at public auction more than 2 300 times, including more than 2,000 were offered to draw graphics, 79 times exhibited his paintings, 60 — original graphics, and 60 — sculpture.

the Current record price for a work by Johns — 28.6 million dollars. Many paid the price for his famous "Flag" at Christie's may 11, 2010. The second result was shown in the pre-crisis 2007 at the auction the auction house Christie's: canvas, 1959 "Figure 4" the buyer had lost 17.4 million dollars. But the most interesting story in the top three is related, of course, the picture that now stands in third place in the list of the most expensive works sold at public auction. So, 10 November 1988 (!) at Sotheby's very bright and decorative canvas, the "False" written by Jones in 1959, sold for $ 17 million. This figure was immediately called for an impregnable living artist, Yes, actually, the way it turned out: this auction the record lasted 19 years. Interestingly, the experience of Jasper Johns as a carrier of record was not continuous. In 1989 he interrupted his work colleagues Willem de Kooning (20.7 million dollars), but after 8 years, in 1997, de Kooning died, and "False start" Jones again took first place ranking of auction prices for works by living artists. Almost 10 years — up to 2007. And in 2006-м the same "False start" was sold in a private transaction for $ 80 million. And now it's actually the most expensive work of living artists. (100-миллионный "skull" Hirst, rumored to be bought by the author, as the result of "False starts" — undisputed.)

Back to the auction statistics. Original graphics Jones too long since exceeded the million mark. Record price — 10 928 000 $ — were paid in November 2004 for the drawing in charcoal and pastel on paper "From 0 to 9" (1961).

the Record in sculpture the work belongs to the "Opinion of the critic" (1961), who retired from the auction the auction house Christie's for 5 000 000 $ 11 may 2005.

the Most expensive lottery thing — monotype "untitled" (1983), for which 9 may 2012 at Christie's was paid 1 482 $ 500.

Despite these records, limited edition works of Jones can be found in the middle and lower price segments.

For the next month, the auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's announced a more than 40 artworks of Jasper Johns, so that all his fans — and collectors, and investors — there is a real chance to bargain for the works of classic contemporary American art.

Maria Kuznetsova, AI

the Sources are: nytimes.com; metmuseum.org; artchive.com; pbs.org; philamuseum.org; adindex.ru; lenta.ru; en.wikipedia.org; artuzel.com; artinvestment.ru.