Quote

I feel that works of art are an opportunity for people to construct meaning, so I don't usually tell what they mean. It conveys to people that they have to participate.

Jasper Johns

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Jasper Johns
Age: 94
Born: 1930
Born: May 15
Artist
Costume Designer
Designer
Graphic Artist
Illustrator
Painter
Photographer
Printmaker
Sculptor
Augusta
Georgia
Feels
Participate
Mean
Meaning
People
Usually
Works
Opportunity
Tell
Conveys
Art
Construct
Feel
Constructs

More quotes by Jasper Johns

Image
Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else to it.
Jasper Johns
Image
There may or may not be an idea, and the meaning may just be that the painting exists.
Jasper Johns
Image
A picture ought to be looked at the same way you look at a radiator.
Jasper Johns
Image
That’s what painting does it organizes vision in a certain way or suggests that certain things be paid attention to and certain other things not be paid attention to. It functions in that way to a certain extent in our civilization.
Jasper Johns
Image
Generally, I am opposed to painting which is concerned with conceptions of simplicity. Everything looks busy to me.
Jasper Johns
Image
Working is very important to me. Probably because as a child I was taught that work was good. I don’t believe it intellectually but I identify with that idea. So it’s probably just like a habit.
Jasper Johns
Image
I am not strong on perfection.
Jasper Johns
Image
I love drawings, so I've always enjoyed making drawings that exist on their own.
Jasper Johns
Image
When you work you learn something about what you are doing and you develop habits and procedures out of what you're doing.
Jasper Johns
Image
One's range [of ideas] is limited by one's interests and imagination and by one's passion.
Jasper Johns
Image
A-not-complete-unit, or a new unit. The elements in the 3 parts should neither fit nor not fit together. One would like not to be led. Avoid the idea of a puzzle which could be solved. Remove the signs of thought. It is not thought which needs showing.
Jasper Johns
Image
I think through living one's life, one both changes and remains the same. One can see it either way, one can see oneself as being now what one was and one can see oneself as being absolutely different from what one was. It's a trick of thought.
Jasper Johns
Image
I decided that if my work contained what I could identify as a likeness to other work, I would remove it.
Jasper Johns
Image
I assumed that everything would lead to complete failure, but I decided that didn't matter – that would be my life.
Jasper Johns
Image
Old art offers just as good a criticism of new art as new art offers of old.
Jasper Johns
Image
To me, self-description is a calamity.
Jasper Johns
Image
I tend to like things that already exist.
Jasper Johns
Image
Art is either a complaint or appeasement.
Jasper Johns
Image
My experience with life is that it's very fragmented. In one place certain kinds of thing occur, and in another place a different kind of thing occurs. I would like my work to have some vivid indication of those differences. I guess, in painting, it would amount to different kinds of space being represented in it.
Jasper Johns
Image
I am just trying to find a way to make pictures.
Jasper Johns