b. 1930, Augusta, Georgia, U.S.A.
Jasper Johns grew up in South Carolina. He was drafted into thearmy and stationed in Japan. Between 1949 and 1951 he studied at the University of SouthCarolina, Columbia. From 1952 to 1958 he worked in a bookshop in New York. He also diddisplay work with Robert Rauschenberg for Bonwit Teller and Tiffany.

In 1954 he painted his first flagpicture. He had his first one-man exhibition in 1958 at the Leo Castelli Gallery, NewYork. He was represented at the Venice Biennale during the same year. His picture GreyNumbers also won the International Prize at the Pittsburgh Biennale. In 1959 he tookpart with Rauschenberg in Allan Kaprow's Happening Eighteen Happenings in Six Parts.He was included in the collective exhibition Sixteen Americans in the same year atthe Museum of Modern Art. In 1960 he began working with lithographs.

In 1961 he did his first large map pictureand travelled to Paris for an exhibition at the Galerie Rive Droite. In 1964 he was given acomprehensive retrospective at the Jewish Museum, New York. The catalog included texts by John Cage and Alan Solomon. He was represented at the Venice Biennale in the same year. In1965 he had a retrospective at the Pasadena Art Museum, organized by Walter Hopps. Duringthe same year he saw a Duchamp exhibition and won a prize at the 6th InternationalExhibition of Graphic Art, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia. In 1966 he had a one-person exhibition ofdrawings at the National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington DC.

In 1967 he rented a loft in CanalStreet and painted Harlem Light using a tile motif. He also illustrated FrankO'Hara's book of poems "In Memory of My Feelings". He was Artistic Adviser forthe composer John Cage and Merce Cunningham's Dance Company until 1972, collaborating withRobert Morris, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol and Bruce Nauman. In that year he was representedat the documenta "4", Kassel, designed costumes for Merce Cunningham's"Walkaround Time" and spent seven weeks at the printers Gemini G.E.L., LosAngeles. In 1973 he met Samuel Beckett in Paris. He moved to Stony Point, N.Y.

He was given a comprehensiveretrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, in 1977, shown in 1978 atthe Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, Hayward Gallery, London,and Seibu Museum of Art, Tokyo. He was represented at the Venice Biennale in 1978. In 1979the Kunstmuseum Basle put on an exhibition of his graphic work which toured Europe. In1988 he was awarded the Grand Prix at the Venice Biennale.

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01.12.11: BIOG. II