From September, the Royal Academy of Arts will present a landmark exhibition devoted to the Honorary Royal Academician, Jasper Johns.
On display from the 23rd September, this will be the first comprehensive exhibition of the artist’s work in the UK for 40 years and will feature over 150 pieces of work.
The exhibition will bring together sculpture, drawings and prints, alongside new work created by the artist, exploring why he is recognised as one of the most influential artists of the 20th and 21st century.
Spanning over sixty years Jasper Johns: ‘Something Resembling Truth’ will examine how the artist was able to occupy an important position in American contemporary art since he arrived in New York in the 1950s by bringing together artworks that rarely travel from international private and public collections.
Arranged thematically, the exhibition will focus on the range of Johns’ materials, motifs and techniques including his unique use of encaustic (heated beeswax) and collage in paintings, and the innovations he has achieved in sculpture and the graphic arts by expanding the possibilities of traditional media.
Some of the highlights of the display will include Flag, 1958 (Private collection); Painted Bronze, 1960, (Private collection) Painting with Two Balls, 1960 (on loan to the Philadelphia Museum of Art); 0 Through 9, 1961, (Private collection); Target, 1961 (The Art Institute of Chicago); Decoy, 1971 (Private collection); Between the Clock and the Bed, 1981 (National Gallery of Art, Washington); Dancers on a Plane, 1980-1 (Tate); Ventriloquist, 1983 (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston); Summer, 1985 (Museum of Modern Art, New York); and Bridge, 1997 (Private collection).
Jasper John was born in 1930 in Georgia, and raised in South Carolina, beginning to draw as a young child. During his career, he was awarded the Grand Prize for Painting at the Venice Bienniale in 1988, the Praemium Imperiale in Tokyo in 1993 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. Jasper Johns was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1989.
Jasper Johns: ‘Something Resembling Truth’ will be displayed at the Royal Academy of Arts from the 23rd September until the 10th December. For more information and to book tickets visit: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/jasper-johns.