Jasper Johns (b. 1930) is one of the most influential American artists of the 20th century. Born and raised in the South, he knew from an early age that he wanted to be an artist. He briefly attended the University of South Carolina before moving, at the urging of his art teachers, to New York City. Johns was drafted into the United States Army in 1951 and served for two years in South Carolina and Sendai, Japan. When he returned to New York in 1953, he formed a close friendship with fellow artist and Southerner Robert Rauschenberg. The next year, to show his commitment to creating original art, Johns destroyed all of his previous work. He also began painting what would become one of his signature sources of inspiration: the American flag. With the flag, targets, cans, and other everyday objects, Johns transformed “things the mind already knows” into abstractions. By the end of the decade, Johns had invented a new style that emphasized deliberate control and would become foundational to Pop, Minimal, and Conceptual Art.

His work is held in several institutional collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York; Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; and the Tate Gallery, London, England.

Johns’ work was featured in the group exhibition Modern and Contemporary Masters at GRAY in 1992.