“Untitled” (America) | Art & Artists
“Untitled” (America) | Art & Artists
Jasper Johns, Racing Thoughts, 1983
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With its complex accumulation of art-historical and personal references, Racing Thoughts functions as a symbolic self-portrait of Jasper Johns. Images of objects belonging to the artist, including a puzzle-portrait of his art dealer Leo Castelli, a lithograph by Barnett Newman, and a reproduction of the Mona Lisa appear improbably affixed to the background with painted tape and tacks. On a wicker hamper sit a pot by ceramicist George Ohr and a vase with contours delineating the profiles of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. The “racing thoughts” referred to in the title take shape as a disjointed flood of personal materials, each carrying meaning and pointing to repeated motifs used throughout the artist’s career.
Jasper Johns, Racing Thoughts, 1983
Jasper Johns (b. 1930), Racing Thoughts, 1983. Encaustic, screenprint, and wax crayon on collaged cotton and linen, 48 1/16 × 75 3/16 in. (122.1 × 191 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 Art © Jasper Johns, Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY