Ale Cans
Jasper Johns American
Published by Universal Limited Art Editions American
Not on view
Like many of his contemporaries, Johns was profoundly influenced by the artist Marcel Duchamp and his concept of the readymade, an ordinary, mass-produced object that the artist selects, removes from its functional role, and declares to be art. Yet rather than merely presenting quotidian objects, Johns meticulously created them. One of his earliest such works is Painted Bronze, a 1960 hand-painted bronze sculpture of two cast cans of Ballantine Ale. Allegedly inspired by the artist Willem de Kooning’s snide remark that Leo Castelli, Johns’s dealer, was so skilled he could sell two beer cans, the sculpture was promptly sold and the ale cans became one of Johns’s most recognizable motifs. They reappear throughout his work in a variety of media over several decades, such as here.
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