Quotes by Jasper Johns

About Jasper Johns:

Jasper Johns is an American painter and printmaker.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

There was very little art in my childhood. I was raised in South Carolina; I wasn't aware of any art in South Carolina. There was a minor museum in Charleston, which had nothing of interest in it. It showed local artists, paintings of birds.

Jasper Johns

In the place where I was a child, there were no artists and there was no art, so I really didn't know what that meant. I think I thought it meant that I would be in a situation different than the one that I was in.

Jasper Johns

In the place where I was a child, there were no artists and there was no art, so I really didn't know what that meant.

Jasper Johns

I was raised in South Carolina; I wasn't aware of any art in South Carolina. There was a minor museum in Charleston, which had nothing of interest in it. It showed local artists, paintings of birds.

Jasper Johns

I think a painting should include more experience than simply intended statement.

Jasper Johns

When something is new to us, we treat it as an experience. We feel that our senses are awake and clear. We are alive.

Jasper Johns

My experience of life is that it's very fragmented; certain kinds of things happen, and in another place, a different kind of thing occurs. I would like my work to have some vivid indication of those differences.

Jasper Johns

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

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

Sometime during the mid-50s I said, 'I am an artist.' Before that, for many years, I had said, 'I'm going to be an artist.' Then I went through a change of mind and a change of heart. What made 'going to be an artist' into 'being an artist', was, in ...

Jasper Johns

I wish there were more humor in my work than I see in it.

Jasper Johns

To be an artist you have to give up everything, including the desire to be a good artist.

Jasper Johns

What you might consider a bad work can be of extreme interest to an artist in ways which are not about its being a good or bad.

Jasper Johns

Intention involves such a small fragment of our consciousness and of our mind and of our life.

Jasper Johns

I love drawings, so I've always enjoyed making drawings that exist on their own.

Jasper Johns

I tend to like things that already exist.

Jasper Johns

I don't know how to organise thoughts. I don't know how to have thoughts.

Jasper Johns

Do something, do something to that, and then do something to that.

Jasper Johns

I am just trying to find a way to make pictures.

Jasper Johns

I never wish for critics.

Jasper Johns

Author Bio

  • NameJasper Johns
  • DescriptionAmerican artist
  • BornMay 15, 1930
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionPainter; Sculptor
  • WorksTarget With Four Faces; Three Flags Flags; Map
  • AwardsNational Medal Of Arts; Praemium Imperiale