Jasper Johns

Early on I was very involved with the notion of the painting as an object and tended to attack that idea from…

— Jasper Johns

Make something, a kind of object, which as it changes or falls apart (dies as it were) or increases in its parts…

— Jasper Johns

In my early work, I tried to hide my personality, my psychological state, my emotions. This was partly due to my feelings…

— 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…

— Jasper Johns

I have meant what I have done. Or I have often meant what I have done. Or I have sometimes meant what…

— Jasper Johns

Art as a fantasy has been one of my earliest experiences. I suppose a lot of my childhood was a fantasy that…

— 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,…

— 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…

— Jasper Johns

That's what painting does; it organizes vision in a certain way or suggests that certain things be paid attention to and certain…

— Jasper Johns

I assumed that everything would lead to complete failure, but I decided that didn't matter – that would be my life.

— Jasper Johns

I tend to like things that already exist.

— Jasper Johns

Bend color names which should be made of neon or copper tubing. Place an object on a surface - trace the object…

— Jasper Johns

My experience with life is that it's very fragmented. In one place certain kinds of thing occur, and in another place a…

— Jasper Johns

I never wish for critics.

— Jasper Johns

Art is either a complaint or appeasement.

— Jasper Johns

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

— Jasper Johns

Put a lot of paint & a wooden ball or other object on a board. Push to the other end of the…

— Jasper Johns

There may or may not be an idea, and the meaning may just be that the painting exists.

— Jasper Johns

“As one gets older one sees many more paths that could be taken. Artists sense within their own work that kind of…

— Jasper Johns

A picture ought to be looked at the same way you look at a radiator.

— Jasper Johns

I am not strong on perfection.

— Jasper Johns

Generally, I am opposed to painting which is concerned with conceptions of simplicity. Everything looks busy to me.

— Jasper Johns

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

— Jasper Johns

My work is largely concerned with relations between seeing and knowing, seeing and saying, seeing and believing.

— Jasper Johns

I’m interested in things which suggest the world rather than express the personality... The most conventional thing, the most ordinary - it…

— Jasper Johns