Focal Points: Jasper Johns

How can we interpret the work of contemporary artists? First released in 2024, Focal Points is a book series of essays, articles and reviews by acclaimed curator and critic Robert Storr. Expertly edited by art historian and curator Francesca Pietropaolo, and richly illustrated, it lends Storrs illuminating insights into an artists practice and way of thinking across recent decades. Brilliantly scholarly, accessible and engaging, Focal Points offers fresh interpretations of the varied territory of modern and contemporary art. This volume gathers, for the first time, Storrs writings on the work of American painter Jasper Johns (b.1930). An artist internationally recognised for his encaustic paintings of flags, targets and maps, Johnss Neo-Dada works helped to formalise a shift in postwar American art, moving away from Abstract Expressionism and towards Pop art. Storrs essays and articles provide a unique look at Johnss practice and its continuing relevance. As Pietropaolo notes in her introduction, Together, these writings encapsulate Storrs process of close looking at and prolonged thinking about Johnss art, the result of a longstanding engagement that started back in the late 1960s when he first met the artist in New York.