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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Mirror/Double

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This gallery explores Jasper Johns’s deep fascination with the twinned concepts of the mirror and the double, which inspired this retrospective’s title, Mind/Mirror, and its unique bipartite structure in Philadelphia and New York. Sometimes Johns explores these ideas in works that depict pairs of objects or that are structured symmetrically so they mirror themselves internally. In other cases, he plays with doubling in versions of a work by executing it in different palettes, materials, or sizes. The relationship between objects grows even more entangled when Johns inverts the figure and background in a composition or reverses it from left to right or top to bottom, as in the aptly named paintings Mirror’s Edge (1992) and Mirror’s Edge 2 (1993).

The unusual architecture and installation of this gallery are designed to emphasize the uncanniness of Johns’s echoes and reflections. Four pairs of objects hang in the corners of the room, at ninety-degree angles, as though reflecting one another, while a kaleidoscopic structure mirrors views across the space. At the center of the room sits Painted Bronze (1960), one of an edition of two that features a pair of cast ale cans—the other is on view in Philadelphia. At first glance, the duo of cans seems identical, but close observation reveals they are imperfect copies of one another and of the commercial product they depict. Like Painted Bronze, all of Johns’s experiments with reflections and doubles invite this type of heightened attention so that one senses oneself in the act of perception, a key characteristic of his art.

The corresponding gallery at the Philadelphia Museum of Art also focuses on reflections and doubles.

  • Tall rectangular painted collage, including a blueprint, photograph of a solar system, a taped-on abstract painting, and sketched stick figures.
    Tall rectangular painted collage, including a blueprint, photograph of a solar system, a taped-on abstract painting, and sketched stick figures.

    Jasper Johns, Mirror’s Edge, 1992. Oil on canvas, 66 × 44 in. (167.6 × 111.8 cm). Esther Grether Family Collection. © 2021 Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Dorothy Zeidman

  • Tall rectangular painted collage, including a blueprint, photograph of a solar system, a taped-on abstract painting, and sketched stick figures.
    Tall rectangular painted collage, including a blueprint, photograph of a solar system, a taped-on abstract painting, and sketched stick figures.

    Jasper Johns, Mirror’s Edge 2, 1993. Encaustic on canvas, 66 × 44 1/8 in. (167.6 × 112.1 cm). The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection. © 2021 Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Dorothy Zeidman

  • Tessellation of red, yellow, and blue striped patches, with alternating stencil lettering at the bottom edge of the composition reading "DANCERS ON A PLANE JASPER JOHNS 1979", and with spoons, forks, and knives running outside the left and right sides of the painting.
    Tessellation of red, yellow, and blue striped patches, with alternating stencil lettering at the bottom edge of the composition reading "DANCERS ON A PLANE JASPER JOHNS 1979", and with spoons, forks, and knives running outside the left and right sides of the painting.

    Jasper Johns, Dancers on a Plane, 1979. Oil on canvas and partially painted wood frame with objects, 77 7/8 × 64 1/8 in. (197.8 × 162.9 cm). Collection of the artist; on long-term loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2000. © 2021 Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph courtesy the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, New York

  • Abstract view of a colorful interior, with photographs artwork reproductions, and artworks on the walls; two vases; a faucet; and words embedded in the patterned background.
    Abstract view of a colorful interior, with photographs artwork reproductions, and artworks on the walls; two vases; a faucet; and words embedded in the patterned background.

    Jasper Johns, Racing Thoughts, 1983. Encaustic and collage on canvas, 48 1/8 × 75 3/8 in. (122.2 × 191.5 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Burroughs Wellcome Purchase Fund; Leo Castelli; the Wilfred P. and Rose J. Cohen Purchase Fund; the Julia B. Engel Purchase Fund; the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States Purchase Fund; The Sondra and Charles Gilman, Jr. Foundation, Inc.; S. Sidney Kahn; The Lauder Foundation, Leonard and Evelyn Lauder Fund; the Sara Roby Foundation; and the Painting and Sculpture Committee 84.6. © 2021 Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

  • Abstract view of a gray, black, and white interior, with photographs artwork reproductions, and artworks on the walls; two vases; a faucet; and words embedded in the patterned background.
    Abstract view of a gray, black, and white interior, with photographs artwork reproductions, and artworks on the walls; two vases; a faucet; and words embedded in the patterned background.

    Jasper Johns, Racing Thoughts, 1984. Oil on canvas, 50 × 75 in. (127 × 190.5 cm). The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection. © 2021 Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph courtesy the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, New York

  • Wide rectangular composition vertically bisected into two equal halves. The right half is a colorful contour drawing of a figure sitting upright in bed, while the left half mirrors this image but without the linear outlines and rendered in shades of gray, as well as muted red, blue, and yellow.
    Wide rectangular composition vertically bisected into two equal halves. The right half is a colorful contour drawing of a figure sitting upright in bed, while the left half mirrors this image but without the linear outlines and rendered in shades of gray, as well as muted red, blue, and yellow.

    Jasper Johns, Study for Regrets, 2012. Watercolor, colored pencil, ink, collage, and acrylic on paper, 11 1/2 × 17 7/8 in. (29.1 × 45.4 cm). The Menil Collection, Houston, promised gift from the collection of Louisa Stude Sarofim. © 2021 Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Jerry L. Thompson

  • Two smudgy black handprints, pointing left and right in opposite directions, with handwritten arrows and annotations.
    Two smudgy black handprints, pointing left and right in opposite directions, with handwritten arrows and annotations.

    Jasper Johns, Hand, 1963. Lithograph: one stone, 22 1/2 × 17 1/2 in. (57.2 × 44.5 cm). Printed by Zigmunds Priede; published by Universal Limited Art Editions. Edition no. 18/29. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Florence and Joseph Singer Collection, 65.674.5. © 2021 Jasper Johns and ULAE / VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

  • Two ale cans.
    Two ale cans.

    Jasper Johns, Painted Bronze, 1960 (cast and painted in 1964). Bronze and oil paint (three parts), 5 1/2 × 8 × 4 5/8 in. (14 × 20.3 × 11.8 cm). Edition no. 2/2. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Leonard A. Lauder Masterpiece Fund. © 2021 Jasper Johns / Licensed by 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

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Maya Man, A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City

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