Jasper Johns Biography

Jasper Johns is an artist known for moving beyond Abstract Expressionism with the use of iconographic images such as flags, targets, letters and numbers. He grew up in South Carolina and headed to New York in the late 1940s to pursue an art career. Johns made a splash with a 1958 show, where his representations of bold, familiar images stirred some critics to proclaim his work an important break from abstract painting and, later, a forerunner to the pop art of Andy Warhol and others. Johns is also famous for being able to negotiate high prices for his work: Three Flags (1958) sold for $1.5 million in 1980; Out the Window (1958) sold in 1986 for $4.5 million; White Flag (1955) sold in 1998 for a reported $20 million; and False Start (1959) sold in 2006 for $80 million.