Figuring Jasper
“There is as much unpredictable originality in quoting, imitating, transposing and echoing, as there is in inventing. The ways artists relate to antecedents - and their reasons for doing so - are as open to innovation as art itself.”
Leo Steinberg
“Seeing a thing can sometimes trigger the mind to make another thing. In some instances the new work may include, as a sort of subject matter, references to the thing that was seen. and, because works of painting tend to share many aspects, working itself may initiate memories of other works, naming or painting these ghosts sometimes seems to be a way to stop their nagging.”
“Take an object.
Do something to it.
Do something else to it…”
“One of the crucial problems in art is the business of “meaning it”. If you are a painter, meaning the paintings you make; if you are an observer, meaning what you see.”
“Everyone is of course free to interpret the work in his own way. I think seeing a picture is one thing and interpreting it is another.”
Jasper Johns
For Jasper