Quote

To me, self-description is a calamity.

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
Calamity
Description
Self

More quotes by 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
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
I'm not sure what 'coming out right' means. It often means that what you do holds a kind of energy that you wouldn't just put there, that comes about through grace of some sort.
Jasper Johns
Image
Merce is my favorite artist in any field.
Jasper Johns
Image
Bend color names which should be made of neon or copper tubing. Place an object on a surface - trace the object - then bend the object - leaving some part of it attached.
Jasper Johns
Image
Old art offers just as good a criticism of new art as new art offers of old.
Jasper Johns
Image
I love drawings, so I've always enjoyed making drawings that exist on their own.
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
A picture ought to be looked at the same way you look at a radiator.
Jasper Johns
Image
As one gets older one sees many more paths that could be taken. Artists sense within their own work that kind of swelling of possibilities, which may seem a freedom or a confusion.
Jasper Johns
Image
I have no ideas about what the paintings imply about the world. I don't think that's a painter's business. He just paints paintings without a conscious reason.
Jasper Johns
Image
Put a lot of paint & a wooden ball or other object on a board. Push to the other end of the board. Use this in a painting. - ruler on board.
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
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 think a painting should include more experience than simply intended statement.
Jasper Johns
Image
One's range [of ideas] is limited by one's interests and imagination and by one's passion.
Jasper Johns
Image
I am just trying to find a way to make pictures.
Jasper Johns
Image
Art is either a complaint or appeasement.
Jasper Johns
Image
I have meant what I have done. Or I have often meant what I have done. Or I have sometimes meant what I have done. Or I have tried to mean what I was doing.
Jasper Johns
Image
I tend to like things that already exist.
Jasper Johns