LOS ANGELES—Widely known for his iconic early images of flags, targets, maps and numbers, Jasper Johns is an artist of unparalleled importance in the last century. In the first full survey of his work in more than 20 years in the United States, The Broad is presenting six decades of rarely loaned artworks from Johns’ remarkable and inventive career—many never before seen in Los Angeles. Jasper Johns: ‘Something Resembling Truth’, a collaboration with the Royal Academy, London, will be on view from Feb. 10 until May 13, 2018. The Broad is the exclusive U.S. venue for this exhibition.
On Monday, Jan. 1, 2018 at noon PT, The Broad will release timed tickets for the entire run of the exhibition at thebroad.org. Tickets will be $25 for adults, free for children 17 and under, and will include same-day general admission for The Broad’s third floor galleries. In celebration of this rare opportunity to consider Johns’ entire career in depth, The Broad will host free First Thursdays with free standby admission to the special exhibition from 4-7 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month during the exhibition’s run (Mar. 1, Apr. 5 and May 3, 2018). The Broad’s third floor galleries will continue to be accessible with free general admission tickets, and will show a robust selection of postwar and contemporary works from the Broad collection.
Jasper Johns: ‘Something Resembling Truth’ will feature more than 120 of the artist’s most significant paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings. With loans from dozens of museums and private collections from around the world, including significant works from the Broad collection, the exhibition will trace the evolution of the artist’s wide-ranging practice through a series of thematic chapters. The exhibition encompasses the full range of Johns’ materials, motifs and techniques—including his unique use of encaustic (heated beeswax) and found-material collage in paintings—and the innovations he has achieved in sculpture and the graphic arts by expanding the possibilities of traditional media. Johns’ use of accessible images will be thoroughly examined, seen continually transformed through the artist’s engagement with a wide range of human experiences. In a departure from a retrospective approach, Johns’ artistic achievements will be illuminated through the juxtaposition of early and late works throughout the exhibition.
The museum will be announcing an inventive slate of public programs that will further explore and contextualize the artist’s work through the performing arts and live public discussions of the essential influence of Johns on younger generations of artists.
One of the most influential and important artists to emerge in the last century, Johns has been seminal to the Broad collection. His work emerged with and has influenced numerous other Broad collection artists represented in depth, including Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Bruce Nauman, Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari and Sherrie Levine.
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