Richard Francis (3) (1949–)

Jasper Johns is, by far, the most influential modern painter--for myself and my own painting work.

From the introduction:

"...Jasper Johns's art is generated by complex and difficult ideas, and these cannot be avoided.. We are seduced by the objects that Johns chooses to depict, ordinary, everyday things that appear unexpected or absurd as the subjects of this highly abstracted debate. ...The works are difficult to explain because they deal, often, with the problems specific to making

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paintings. They are, in that respect, technical, and their vocabulary is that of picture making and comparable with the language of scientific discourse."

YES!!! Johns doesn't paint "pretty" pictures, portraits, or standard landscapes with discernible fore- middle- and back-grounds. His pieces are, very often, complex studies that fold in on themselves, consistent to an internal artistic language of each piece, leaving the viewer with a sense that the piece(s) both present and answer specific questions. Each piece is a journey rather than a destination. His work is dense both in meaning (interpretation) and the way in which he works his materials.

His "Numbers" series of works remains one of my future must-haves should I ever be wealthy enough to afford an original Johns. show less