Is it still possible to buy a paint by numbers kit for people who want to be artists?
Jasper Johns: Works on Paper, 1994-2007, is an exhibit of only 17 works, but seeing it is well worth the trek to Youngstown. Johns has defined an era in American art. His work is the touchstone that puts everything right, the anchor, the sail and the vessel that have carried us through often churning art world seas that have too often in the last few decades offered up a great deal of shock and not much awe. Happily, his own work offers us a seemingly limitless bounty of exceptions. His touch is sure and fluid, his wit both subtle and profound and his eye is still the best in the business. Johns’ art builds upon Cubism, Dada and Surrealism. His early work combined a serious concern for the craft of painting and an incredibly elegant way of handling paint with an emphasis on commonplace subject matter, a strategy that tended to force viewer attention on the painting process itself. Johns’ series of flags and targets, numbers, maps, rule and circle devices managed to combine representati
