Target with Four Faces (1955) by Jasper Johns

Target with Four Faces - Jasper Johns - 1955

Artwork Information

TitleTarget with Four Faces
ArtistJasper Johns
Date1955
MediumEncaustic and collage on Canvas with plaster casts
Dimensions29 3/4 x 26 x 3 3/4 in. (75.5 x 71 x 9.7 cm.)
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About Target with Four Faces

Jasper Johns’ Target with Four Faces is a unique artwork that combines painting and sculpture. The piece features a shooting target motif painted in encaustic on canvas, crowned with four miniature plaster casts of the lower half of the same model’s face enclosed in a small wooden box with a hinged lid. The use of familiar objects like targets, newspaper, and fabric dipped in encaustic produces textured surfaces that add to the visual appeal.

The viewer is challenged to examine themselves while viewing the art through this provocative image. Johns’ target-theme influenced pop art as it has become a recognizable logo/advertising form for many brands. He destroyed all earlier art before developing motifs such as numbers, flags, and alphabets. His strategic pattern allowed him to be flexible at working on different levels giving his subjectivity more depth.

Johns used miniatures and scale variations to upset our sense of proportion and perception; he was crucial between 1955-1965 for the development of pop art into conceptualism from its roots in abstract expressionism because his pieces were visually attractive but conceptually demanding. Target with Four Faces cast visitors beyond traditional understanding using familiar methods – relief texture combined tight arrangement invigorated by emptiness — breaking norms establishing new boundaries when it comes to narrative visuals.

Overall, Jasper John’s Target with Four Faces still holds its ground among contemporaries both as an exceptional art piece worth considering on lookers’ list when critiquing or improving personal tapestry or an excellent example for students interested in combining different mediums creatively—allude everything else by killing time analyzing every shape color or angle until readers adequately decipher how message portrays cultural standards shifting over time instead promoting individuality culture absence beyond functional attributes can impart deep contexts gain useful insights transcending popular belief creative devices unfolding backstory aesthetic value onto one another elevating artistic accomplishments high above any mundane collectibles modern society sought after lately’s convenience and efficiency-oriented living style.

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