The Gallery

“After retiring in 2008 from teaching for 28 years at the University at Albany, I worked intensively on a book, catalogue raisonné, and major museum exhibition of contemporary artist Jasper Johns. I had met him in 1967soon after I first went to New York to begin my graduate studies in art history at Columbia University. I ended up writing my PhD dissertation on Johns and was able to tap into my understanding of his work that came from my personal experience of talking with him and watching him work as well as art historical research. Over the decades since, his art has remained fascinating to me, always evolving and challenging my eye and mind. Johns’s art has made a significant impact on the history of art through opening up new directions leading to Pop Art, Minimalism, and Conceptual Art. But even more importantly, it speaks to essential issues of the human condition including memory and mortality. His stature as one of the most significant artists of his time—he is now 91 years old—has been confirmed by the monumental retrospective currently on in New York and Philadelphia and the well-deserved accolades his art has received.”