- Hardcover: 1 pages
- Publisher: Thames and Hudson (Oct 1 1996)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0500017360
- ISBN-13: 978-0500017364
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.5 x 3.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 748 g
- Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Product Description
From Amazon
An artist's private life is often reflected in his work. Frequently the private is made public, and often this connection makes the work more accessible and interesting. Critic Jill Johnston has taken on the task of exploring the life and work of Jasper Johns--that most private of contemporary artists--and has succeeded brilliantly. Johnston is not simply out to reveal Johns's gayness but to explore how his sexuality has shaped his life and work. Johnston's critical eye is unwavering, her ability to delineate political and social contexts is unnervingly on-target. The fact that Johns resisted Johnston's efforts at biography gives the book an underlying tension making it even more fascinating. Jasper Johns: Privileged Information is a fine, intelligent work of biography and criticism.
From Publishers Weekly
Despite his fame as an artist, Johns has always managed to keep his personal life a mystery. Nevertheless, Johnston (Secret Lives in Art) finds clues to his identity in two figures, a plague victim and a soldier, that he has hidden as abstractions in many of his paintings since the early 1980s. She sees these images, traced from Matthias Grunewald's 16th-century Isenheim Altarpiece, as opposing aspects of Johns's personality?the plague victim symbolizing his unhappy childhood and the soldier representing the heroic artist. She makes Johns's obsession with them the starting point of a quest to rout out details of his "secret autobiography" and show how his life has influenced his art. Her thesis is intriguing, and her analyses of Johns's paintings insightful, but her spiteful comments on the contemporary art world are disturbing, as are her accounts of her persistent interrogation of the artist and his family to ferret out the personal, such as his relationship with his parents and his homosexuality. Johns refused to give her any information, nor would he allow reproductions of his paintings in the book. There are, however, photographs of the artist, his family and the Grunewald altarpiece. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Abandoned,
By A Customer
This review is from: Jasper Johns (Hardcover)
Abandoned? That sorry father of his went to his mothers house and stole him from the playpen which was outside. Those men could do anything and get away with it. The grandfather literally ruled the town. Big Fish in a Wee town. That's the story I heard all my life and there was no reason for mama to lie--she was on the scene at the time. The snoopy author didn't talk to enough people.
2.0 out of 5 stars
One talent wasted besmirching another,
By A Customer
This review is from: Jasper Johns (Hardcover)
May we all live to see the day when the present fad of mixing up biography with criticism ends! Once again a critic (i.e., wannabe artist) does her best to soil the work of a truly creative artist by trying to impose her own notions of his life on his work. Or is it the other way around--imposing notions of the work onto the life? It hardly matters--the result is the same. Nothing of substance is said about either, and in the process of saying nothing, she drags in all kinds of ugliness. Of course all the while, the author is claiming to be a great admirer of Johns, even as she purveys her gossip and hearsay. Finally, as is usually the case with such psychographers, she's just revealing her own unsavory motives and hungering ego. The only reason I give the book two stars is that she's not a bad writer. Too bad she had to waste her talent on such a project.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
2.4 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews) 6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Love Johns Hate the Book,
By JMichael - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Jasper Johns (Hardcover)
The deeper I got into this book, the more I disliked it. It is an invasion of privacy...of a person who has decided to try and remain as private and secluded as he can be (which, by the way, is his right to do). I did read with interest as she helped to unravel the complexity behind his paintings, but did not find any interest in her exploration of his deeply personal life. Besides, the author has a tendency to rant and ramble for whole chapters at a time, which I found tedious to say the least. I gave the book 2 stars because I did learn a few things about Johns. But I can't really recommend the book to anyone.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
One talent wasted besmirching another,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Jasper Johns (Hardcover)
May we all live to see the day when the present fad of mixing up biography with criticism ends! Once again a critic (i.e., wannabe artist) does her best to soil the work of a truly creative artist by trying to impose her own notions of his life on his work. Or is it the other way around--imposing notions of the work onto the life? It hardly matters--the result is the same. Nothing of substance is said about either, and in the process of saying nothing, she drags in all kinds of ugliness. Of course all the while, the author is claiming to be a great admirer of Johns, even as she purveys her gossip and hearsay. Finally, as is usually the case with such psychographers, she's just revealing her own unsavory motives and hungering ego. The only reason I give the book two stars is that she's not a bad writer. Too bad she had to waste her talent on such a project.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Worth reading,
By dennisqdw - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Jasper Johns (Hardcover)
I'm surprised by the vehemence of some of the reviewers here. It's as if they've never read any art criticism in the past 30 years. An artist's "private" life is never private especially if knowing more about him or her can improve our understanding of their work. Nonetheless, I do agree with the reviewers who dis the author for too much psychobabble. Although I'm certain that biography and psychology does inform Johns' work (and all other artists), like many reviewers Johnston is really just guessing in large parts of the book. As other reviewers here say, she does seem to lose track of her story occasionally. However these complaints notwithstanding, I do have to say that when she's on, she's on. She really brings a keen eye to interpreting much of his work, and doesn't lose herself to simply formal critique like many writers writing about Johns. She does a good job of addressing his relationship to other critics and the art market, which is interesting sociologically. And finally, although she certainly goes into too much depth regarding his various relatives, a good chunk of it is interesting and relevant.
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