Pyre 2

Jasper Johns

Printed at Gemini GEL, this print was one of a number of works by various artists done to help fundraise for the organization America Coming Together, dedicated to helping Democratic candiates at all levels for the 2004 campaigns.

America Coming Together artists included Frank Gehry, Jasper Johns, Susan Rothenberg, Elizabeth Murray, John Baldessari, Cecily Brown, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha and Richard Serra. Each donated a limited number of signed, original works to be given to select ACT donors. This is one of those impressions.

Painter, sculptor, and printmaker, Jasper Johns was born in Augusta, Georgia on 15 May 1930 and raised in Adelade, South Carolina. He attended the University of South Carolina for two years before moving to New York City in 1949 where he studied briefly at Parsons School of Design. After serving in the U.S. Army, Johns returned to New York and began experimenting with styles, and, his "Flag" painting from 1955, received major attention in the art world. It was revolutionary in that it was simply a geometric design on a large canvas, divorced from emotional or political connotation. Johns became one of the most significant and influential American artists in the 20th century. His name is associated with pictorial images of flags and numbers, Pop-Art subjects that he depicted in a minimalist style with emphasis on linearity, repetition, and symmetry.

Jasper Johns' work is included in the Dallas Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum, Museum of Modern Art NY, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Walker Art Center, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Johns is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.