Page 46 - Studio International - February 1965

On target but off centre

London Commentary by G. S. Whittet
1

Most important exhibition of the year's end in London known 'flag' paintings and those incorporating numbers.
was undoubtedly that of Jasper Johns at the White­ His intention, as expressed in his own words and
chapel Gallery. Pictures, sculptures and drawings through the interpretation of Alan R. Solomons who
presented the output of an artist whose reputation has writes a full if not completely lucid introduction to the
grown in the U.S.A in parallel with Robert Rauschen­ catalogue, is to induce the spectator 'to look.' But to
berg's with whom he has a good deal in common. look without comment is to gag the intelligent on­
Earliest work at Whitechapel is dated 1 955 and from looker. As Raymond Cogniat has pointed out in these
1 the Large Target Construction of that year we are pages, it is difficult to achieve the state of tranquillity
Anthony Gross aware of the trend of his thought. A large target is in which works such as these should be contemplated.
Heat Haze painted centrally on a canvas and above it is a row of Certainly the artist is not going to make it easier for us.
51 X 73 in. compartments in each of which is a plaster cast of part By 1960 he has, it is true, produced some paintings in
Showing at Zwemmer Gallery in
the artist's new one-man show of the human body. Immediately we are conscious of which the swirling staccato brush strokes are at one
from February 16th the breakaway imagery that, in spite of itself, recalls with the lingua franca of abstract expressionism. But
Dada for, like that cult of fifty years earlier, the idea of a not wholeheartedly. There is an addition of the
2
Harry Kramer painting representing on!v something else is rejected. 'lettriste' elements that recall the author as in the large
Cvlindre a 3 pattes Even without a marksman the target is a target and the stencil caption that reads: 'Painting with two balls
Wire constructions 27 in. high isolated members of the anatomy have their reason only 1960 J. Johns.' Comes too the more three-dimensional
Hanover Gallery
in association with that target and with each other. collage objects such as rulers, spoons, wooden slats,
3 They could have been represented by skilful trompe­ painted in oils and encaustic on canvas. The paint is
Jasper Johns /'oei/ rendering but their shock would have been less. handled with a surface energy of variety and sensual
Flag. 1960 Johns's works are not all capable of such intellectual life, even in the delicate grey monochromes.
Bronze12 x 19 in.
Whitechapel Art Gallery teasing as this. Soon he has moved on to the well- There is no doubt that Jasper Johns is a painter of
78