Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror

Sept 29, 2021–Feb 13, 2022

Jasper Johns’s groundbreaking work sent shock waves through the art world when it was first shown in the late 1950s, and he has continued to challenge new audiences—and himself—over a career spanning more than sixty-five years. He was born in 1930 in Augusta, Georgia; spent the majority of his adult life in New York; and today lives in Sharon, Connecticut, where, at the age of ninety-one, he remains active in his studio. Johns’s early use of common objects and motifs, language, and inventive materials and formats upended conventional notions of what an artwork is and can be. His profoundly generative practice helped spark movements including Pop art, Minimalism, and Conceptualism, among others, and has inspired successive generations of artists to this day.

Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror is the most comprehensive retrospective ever devoted to Johns’s art. Featuring his most iconic works along with many others shown for the first time, it comprises a broad range of paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures from 1954 to today across two sites. Conceived as a whole but displayed in two distinct parts, the exhibition appears simultaneously here at the Whitney and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, two institutions with which Johns has had long-standing relationships. This unique dual structure draws on the artist’s lifelong fascination with mirroring and doubles, so that each half of the exhibition echoes and reflects the other. Organized in largely chronological order, the retrospective presents pairs of related galleries—one in each city—that offer varied perspectives on the artist’s turns of mind. Individually, each gallery focuses on a particular aspect of Johns’s thought and work through the lens of different themes, processes, images, mediums, and even emotional states. Taken together, they provide an immersive exploration of the many phases, treasures, and mysteries of a radical, enduring, and still-evolving career.

This exhibition is organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The organizing curators are Carlos Basualdo, Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Scott Rothkopf, Senior Deputy Director and Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, with Sarah B. Vogelman, Exhibition Assistant, in Philadelphia, and Lauren Young, Curatorial Assistant, in New York.

Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror is organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 

Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror is presented by

Leonard and Judy Lauder

Leadership support is provided by 

Kenneth C. Griffin 
Susan and John Hess  

Bank of America is the National Sponsor

 

In New York, this exhibition is sponsored by

Generous support is provided by Judy Hart Angelo; Neil G. Bluhm; Matthew Marks; and Kevin and Rosemary McNeely, Manitou Fund. 

Major support is provided by the Barbara Haskell American Fellows Legacy Fund; The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston; Nancy and Steve Crown; Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz; Ellsworth Kelly Foundation and Jack Shear; Agnes Gund; Kristen and Alexander Klabin; Helen and Charles Schwab; the Whitney’s National Committee; and an anonymous donor.  

Significant support is provided by Constance R. Caplan, Marguerite Steed Hoffman and Tom Lentz, the Jon and Mary Shirley Foundation, Sueyun and Gene Locks, Susan and Larry Marx, Marsha and Jeffrey Perelman, Donna Perret Rosen and Benjamin M. Rosen, The Robert Lehman Foundation, and Stefan T. Edlis and H. Gael Neeson Foundation. 

Additional support is provided by Aaron and Leslee Cowen, Kathy and Richard Fuld, Johanna and Leslie Garfield, Ashley Leeds and Christopher Harland, Mrs. Ronnie F. Heyman, Sheila and Bill Lambert, Barbara and Richard Lane, Margo Leavin, Janie C. Lee, Richard and Nancy Lubin, Martin Z. Margulies, the National Endowment for the Arts, Monique and Gregg Seibert, Norman Selby and Melissa Vail Selby, and Gloria H. Spivak.


This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

The opening dinner is sponsored by Christie’s 


New York magazine is the exclusive media sponsor.

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Prints Timeline

1

Printmaking inherently involves reversal and reproduction, two hallmarks of Johns’s art. Throughout his paintings and drawings, he often flips compositions left to right or top to bottom. He mirrors patterns around a seam or impresses surfaces with implements he sometimes leaves stuck to them. All this happens more easily, if not automatically, in printmaking, and over the years his work in that medium has amplified his fascination with these operations on canvas. Without the aid of an offset press, the image on the matrix necessarily mirrors what is printed on the paper, and a plate can just as effortlessly be rotated before the next proof is pulled. But the greater conceptual correspondence between Johns’s printmaking and the rest of his art lies in its essentially systematic and iterative procedures. Johns often works recursively from one painting to the next to the one after that. An image frequently returns—sometimes years and even decades later—in a different size, medium, or palette. Prints both collapse and extend this modality. On the one hand, an individual image may develop over successive discrete campaigns on a matrix, sometimes followed by the sequential superimposition of multiple plates. On the other hand, printmaking allows for the easy unfurling of permutational thinking in contrast to a suite of paintings or drawings, each of which must be started afresh. After a print’s final state is reached and editioned, Johns’s inquisitive temperament often leads him to “do something else” with the matrix. He might try it again in different colors or invert its values, transforming a black image on light paper into its X-ray correlate. Johns tends to avoid the customary practice of canceling a plate after an edition is complete (to ensure no more examples are made), preferring instead to use that matrix as the launchpad for another work. His mind keeps on turning and so does the press.

  • A vibrant abstract print featuring three horizontal bands of color: red at the top with black scribbles, yellow in the middle with black lines, and blue at the bottom with white and black markings. Two small orange circles are positioned on the yellow band, and the print has rough, uneven edges with visible paper texture.
    A vibrant abstract print featuring three horizontal bands of color: red at the top with black scribbles, yellow in the middle with black lines, and blue at the bottom with white and black markings. Two small orange circles are positioned on the yellow band, and the print has rough, uneven edges with visible paper texture.

    Jasper Johns, Painting with Two Balls I, 1962. Lithograph, sheet (Irregular): 26 3/8 × 20 1/4 in. (67 × 51.4 cm) Image: 20 3/8 × 16 9/16 in. (51.8 × 42.1 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of the family of Victor W. Ganz in his memory 90.49. © Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

  • An abstract monochromatic artwork featuring a blend of dark brush strokes and washes with a faint, ghostly image of a classical figure resembling the Mona Lisa at the center. The piece is signed and numbered at the bottom right.
    An abstract monochromatic artwork featuring a blend of dark brush strokes and washes with a faint, ghostly image of a classical figure resembling the Mona Lisa at the center. The piece is signed and numbered at the bottom right.

    Jasper Johns, Figure 7, 1968. Lithograph, sheet (Irregular): 37 1/8 × 30 in. (94.3 × 76.2 cm) Image: 28 × 21 in. (71.1 × 53.3 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Robert Simons 85.46.8. © Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

  • Composition of a patchwork of striped blotches of red, yellow, and blue.
    Composition of a patchwork of striped blotches of red, yellow, and blue.

    Jasper Johns, Corpse and Mirror, 1976. Silkscreen: thirty-six screens, 42 1/4 × 53 in. (107.3 × 134.6 cm). Printed by Kenjiro Nonaka, Hiroshi Kawanishi, Takeshi Shimada / published by JJ and SPA. Edition no. 17/65. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift from the Emily Fisher Landau Collection, 2020.142. © 2021 Jasper Johns and Simca Print Artists, Inc. / VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

  • Shadowy figure against a light green brick wall, with layered images of flags, a ladder, and works of art.
    Shadowy figure against a light green brick wall, with layered images of flags, a ladder, and works of art.

    Jasper Johns, Summer, from The Seasons, 1987. Intaglio: five copperplates, 26 × 19 in. (66 × 48.3 cm). Printed by John Lund, Hitoshi Kido, Craig Zammiello, Keith Brintzenhofe; published by Universal Limited Art Editions. Edition no. 2/73. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the friends of Victor Ganz in his memory, 88.10.2. © 2021 Jasper Johns and ULAE / VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

  • A colorful, abstract artwork depicting a stylized interior scene with a variety of patterns and objects. The image features a vertical composition with elements such as a striped wall, a window with a green and orange patterned curtain, and several pots and pans hanging on the wall. The artwork combines sketch-like lines with vibrant watercolor-like hues, and there are splashes and drips of paint throughout, giving it an expressive, dynamic quality.
    A colorful, abstract artwork depicting a stylized interior scene with a variety of patterns and objects. The image features a vertical composition with elements such as a striped wall, a window with a green and orange patterned curtain, and several pots and pans hanging on the wall. The artwork combines sketch-like lines with vibrant watercolor-like hues, and there are splashes and drips of paint throughout, giving it an expressive, dynamic quality.

    Jasper Johns, Ventriloquist, 1986. Lithograph, sheet (Irregular): 42 × 29 1/2 in. (106.7 × 74.9 cm) Image: 36 3/8 × 24 1/4 in. (92.4 × 61.6 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Print Committee 86.42. © Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

  • Abstract composition of colorful shapes against a mostly gray background.
    Abstract composition of colorful shapes against a mostly gray background.

    Jasper Johns, Bushbaby, 2004. Intaglio, 43 × 30 in. (109.2 × 76.2 cm). Printed by John Lund, Bill Goldston, Phil Sanders, Jason Miller, Bruce Wankel; published by Universal Limited Art Editions. Edition of 55. Collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody. © 2021 Jasper Johns and ULAE / VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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Essay

A young man sitting on the edge of a desk, looking at the viewer with a neutral expression, and holding a glass, against a backdrop of a painting on the wall and a collection of liquor bottles.

Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror

By Scott Rothkopf, Senior Deputy Director and Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator

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Audio guides

Three American flags on top of each other.
Three American flags on top of each other.

Jasper Johns, Three Flags, 1958. Encaustic on canvas (three panels), 30 7/8 × 45 3/4 in. (78.4 × 116.2 cm) overall. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Gilman Foundation, Inc., The Lauder Foundation, A. Alfred Taubman, Laura-Lee Whittier Woods, Howard Lipman, and Ed Downe in honor of the Museum’s 50th Anniversary 80.32. © 2021 Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Hear from artists, curators, and scholars on selected works from the exhibition.

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Exhibition Catalogue

Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror book cover
Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror book cover

Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror catalogue cover

Jasper Johns (b. 1930) is arguably the most influential artist living today. Over the past sixty-five years, he has produced a radical and varied body of work marked by constant reinvention. Inspired by the artist’s long-standing fascination with mirroring and doubles, this book provides an original and exciting perspective on Johns’s work and its continued relevance.

A diverse group of curators, academics, artists, and writers offer a series of essays—including many paired texts—that consider aspects of the artist’s work, such as recurring motifs, explorations of place, and use of a wide array of media. These include Carroll Dunham on dreams, Ruth Fine on monotypes and working proofs, Michio Hayashi on Japan, Terrance Hayes on flags, and Colm Toíbín on nightmares, among many others. The various themes are further explored in a series of in-depth plate sections that combine prints, drawings, paintings, and sculptures to draw new connections in Johns’s vast output.

Accompanying “mirroring” exhibitions held simultaneously at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, this lavishly illustrated volume features a selection of rarely published works along with never-before-published archival content and is full of revelations that allow us to engage with and understand the artist’s rich and varied body of work in new and meaningful ways.

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Explore works from this exhibition
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In the News

“The structure of the exhibition will open a window onto the beauty, meaning, and remarkable artistic order that organizes Johns’s work.” —ArtfixDaily

“The artist’s work has managed to speak both to and for the country’s consciousness for the last 60 years—and he’s not done yet.” —T Magazine

"[A]n absolute must-see"—Vogue

"It’s a broad and restless confrontation of the work of one of the country’s best-known artists . . . ."  —Boston Globe

"This is the first genuine, must-see blockbuster exhibition to open since the pandemic began in 2019, and it might be an occasion for euphoria.” —Washington Post

"It’s a testimony to [Johns's] long, productive career that Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror needs two museums . . . ." —Wall Street Journal

". . . a spectacular exhibition, spanning the artist's 65-year career and featuring many of his most iconic works as well as rare pieces on public view here for the first time."—Gothamist

"Mind/Mirror is a much-needed close-read, experimental new geography of this artist . . ."—New York Magazine

". . . a monumental retrospective [. . .] reveals an artist’s protean talent, changing perspectives and resiliency over six decades."—New York Times

On the Hour

A 30-second online art project:
Maya Man, A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City

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