Jasper Johns: Regrets

Jasper Johns, Ann Temkin, and Chrisophe Cherix2014In June 2012, Jasper Johns encountered a photograph of the painter Lucian Freud reproduced in a Christie's auction catalogue. Inspired not only by the image but by the physical qualities of the photograph itself, Johns took this motif through a succession of cross-medium permutations. He also incorporated into his art the text of a rubber stamp he had made several years earlier to allow him to efficiently decline the myriad requests and invitations that come his way: "Regrets/Jasper Johns." But the stamp's text also calls to mind the more familiar connotations of regret, such as loss, disappointment, and remorse, evoking an enigmatic sense of melancholy. Published in conjunction with an exhibition of this series of paintings, drawings, and prints created over the last year and a half through an intricate combination of techniques, this publication presents each of the new works in full color. An essay by Ann Temkin, Chief Curator of Pai