POPULAR CULTURE IMAGERY IN JASPER JOHNS’ WORKS

Abstract

Consumer culture, which started to feel its presence by the influence of the developing
economy after World War II, uses popular culture images and everyday objects as the subject of the
painting.
Jasper Johns is one of the most important artists of the period who did not completely
abandon the traditional painting materials and techniques, but added plaster relief, numbers and
letters, lithography, popular cultural objects and images to the painting.Grown up in the United States
and being a contemporary painter with a reputation for Pop Art and Neo-dada, he is also prominent
in his experimental work, which strengthens the connection between popular image use and sculpturepainting.
One of the best known works of John, who put his signature under many important works, is
“Flag”. What is important in this work on American flags is that reality does not turn into a precedent
as an object but it separates from reality by acquiring a pictorial meaning.
In this research, the changing world order and the counterpart in the art world in the 1950s
was questioned and evaluated by addressing Jasper Johns who was one of the most important artists
of the era. The study was carried out by the "qualitative research" method and the collected data were
analyzed by means of "descriptive analysis" method. It is aimed to introduce the artist and his works
in particular using the books, articles, criticism and biographical writings related to the subject and
the data obtained from the internet.