
English: 
in 1958 a young artist made a dramatic
entrance onto the New York art scene
with work that seemed to make a clean
break with the dominant art of the day
unlike the Abstract Expressionists
Jasper Johns didn't reject
representation
he gave us signs and symbols things the
mind already knows as he put it and most
symbolic and familiar of all was the
American flag against the backdrop of
the Cold War was this a political
statement is it subversive or
celebratory why has any such meaning
simply dissolved in the thick layers of
geometrically abstract paint in his long
career Jones has left his mark on
everything from pop art to minimalism
conceptual art to performance still
working today
his nuanced complex art is layered with
multiple meanings Jones wants us to look
and to think and in that act of looking
he believes as his friend and mentor

English: 
In 1958, a young artist
made a dramatic entrance
onto the New York art scene
with work that seemed
to make a clean break
with the dominant art of the day.
Unlike the Abstract Expressionists,
Jasper Johns didn’t reject representation.
He gave us signs and symbols,
'things the mind already knows',
as he put it.
And most symbolic and familiar of all
was the American flag.
Against the backdrop of the Cold War
was this a political statement?
Is it subversive, or celebratory?
Or has any such meaning
simply dissolved in the thick layers
of geometrically abstract paint?
In his long career, Johns has left his mark
on everything from pop art to minimalism
conceptual art to performance.
Still working today, his nuanced, complex
art is layered with multiple meanings.
Johns wants us to look – and to think.
And in that act of looking, he believes
as his friend and mentor Marcel Duchamp did
that we complete the work of art ourselves.

English: 
Marcel Duchamp did but we complete the
work of art ourselves
