Jasper Johns, 1967
GPO-0131
Oil on photo canvas and on primed canvas, collage on photo canvas, nylon thread
94 x 70 cm (two parts: 94 x 70 cm, 45 x 35 cm)
Signed, titled, and dated on the verso of the large canvas, upper stretcher bar, left: “Giulio Paolini / Jasper Johns / 1967”
Luigi and Peppino Agrati Collection – Intesa Sanpaolo
Gift of Luigi and Peppino Agrati, 2018
A photographic canvas, hanging from a nylon thread at the centre of a larger primed canvas reproduces a portrait of Jasper Johns; free brushwork in blue oil was used to paint the whole. Twenty-four stars cut out of a reproduction of the painting Three Flags (1958) by Johns himself are applied to the portrait in three concentric rectangles, in analogy to the composition of John’s painting, so that the American artist appears to be smiling from behind the starry sky.
• Jasper Johns, Three Flags, 1958, encaustic on canvas, 77.8 × 115.6 × 11.7 cm, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; reproduction from Leo Steinberg, “Jasper Johns”, in Metro 4-5 (Milan), May, 1962, p. 93.
• Portrait of Jasper Johns taken by Ed Meneeley; reproduction from Leo Steinberg, “Jasper Johns”, in Metro 4-5 (Milan), May, 1962, p. 83.
| 2018 | Milan, Gallerie d’Italia, Arte come rivelazione. Opere dalla collezione Luigi e Peppino Agrati, 16 May - 19 August, col. repr. p. 101, referred to in the text by L.M. Barbero p. 14. |
| 2025 | Milan, Gallerie d’Italia, Una collezione inattesa. La Nuova Arte degli Anni Sessanta e un Omaggio a Robert Rauschenberg, 30 May - 5 October, no catalogue. |
| • | Paolo Mussat Sartor Fotografo 1968-1978. Arte e artisti in Italia (Turin: Stampatori Editore, 1979), repr. p. 165 (detail). |
| • | F. Poli, “Note di lettura”, in Id., Giulio Paolini (Turin: Lindau, 1990), p. 47, not repr.; republished in Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), p. 77, not repr. |
| • | Arte Povera. Arbeiten und Dokumente aus der Sammlung Goetz 1958 bis heute (Munich: Kunstverlag Ingvild Goetz, 1997), repr. p. 232 (detail); English edition (2001): repr. p. 243 (detail). |
| • | G. Celant, Un folle amore. La Collezione Luigi e Peppino Agrati (Milan: Skira editore, 2002), col. repr. p. 281, entry p. 403 cat. no. 392. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 131 p. 153, col. repr. |
| • | L. Conte, Materia, corpo, azione. Ricerche artistiche processuali tra Europa e Stati Uniti 1966-1970 (Rome-Milan: MAXXI Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo and Mondadori Electa, 2010), p. 289 endnote 168, not repr. |
| • | L’arte moderna in Intesa Sanpaolo. La collezione Luigi e Peppino Agrati, edited by C. Pirovano and F. Tedeschi (Milan: Electa, 2012), cat. no. 365 p. 299 entry by K. McManus, col. repr. |
| • | F. Fergonzi, Una nuova superficie. Jasper Johns e gli artisti italiani 1958-1966 (Milan: Mondadori Electa, 2019), pp. 18, 191, col. repr. p. 166. |
