Matthew Marks Gallery (522 West 22nd)
522 West 22nd Street, 212-243-0200
Chelsea
February 2 - April 12, 2008
Reception: Friday, February 1, 6 - 8 PM
Web Site
This will be Jasper Johns’ second one-person show at Matthew Marks Gallery.
A wide variety of subject matter and media can be seen in Johns’ drawings made over the past ten years. The works are filled with autobiographical references and allusions to earlier art-historical precursors. They often combine his now-famous motifs from early in his career – flags, maps, numerals, cross-hatching – with new ones – a Harlequin’s costume, a piece of string, or flagstones. Thomas Crow, in the catalogue that accompanies the exhibition, writes that Johns treats these motifs “like interchangeable members of an alphabet or lexicon.”
Johns makes his drawings in ink, charcoal, watercolor, acrylic paint, pastel, and/or graphite pencil, among other media, on many different kinds of paper, as well as sheets of plastic.
A hard-cover publication will be available, including an essay by the art-historian Thomas Crow and over 50 color illustrations.