Jasper Johns, the great animator

By Joe Lloyd

“One hopes,” said Jasper Johns in 2006, “for something resembling truth, some sense of life, even of grace, to flicker, at least, in the work.” It is hard to imagine a better one-line summary of his life and work. Johns is one of contemporary art’s great animators, igniting his canvases with vitality.

“Jasper Johns: Something Resembling Truth”, at the Royal Academy in London, is the first major survey of Johns’ work held in Britain for four decades. It includes over 150 paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints, from the 1950s to the present day. Although arranged thematically, with early works placed beside more recent ones, it does broadly follow the arc of his career. Motifs like flags, skulls, numbers, handprints and footprints crop up again and again, their meaning evolving over the years.