Born almost 70 years apart, you might not think painters Jasper Johns and Edvard Munch have much in common, but a massive new exhibit at the VMFA offers new insight into the two artists’s equally incredible works.
Born almost 70 years apart, you might not think painters Jasper Johns and Edvard Munch have much in common, but a massive new exhibit at the VMFA offers new insight into the two artists’s equally incredible works.
Curated by John B. Ravenal, the exhibit started when the former VMFA Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art took interest in a Johns piece that had been part of the VMFA since the mid-80s: “Between the Clock and the Bed.”
“I always wondered why it was titled after that,” Ravenal said comparing the 1982-1983 piece to Munch’s 1940-1943 “Self Portrait. Between The Clock And The Bed.” “I knew it was a reference to a late-self portrait by Munch. But I was curious as to why he’d titled an abstract painting after a very expressive, figurative painting.”
Between the Clock and the Bed, 1982–83, Jasper Johns (American, born 1930), encaustic on canvas. Art © Jasper Johns/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
Self-Portrait between the Clock and the Bed, 1940–43, Edvard Munch (Norwegian, 1863–1944), oil on canvas. Munch Museum, Oslo
The two, which both hang in the new exhibit, do offer stark contrast in form and design, however Revenal dug deeper and found comparisons not only between the two works, but between numerous Johns and Munch pieces. The collection, called “Love, Loss, and the Cycle of Life,” gives a viewer the chance to see the similarities in a rare, first-of-its-kind experience.
Spanning about 15 years of the August, GA, born Johns’ career, the pieces mainly feature his trademark (for that period) crosshatching work. A four panel piece (seen below) welcomes you to the exhibition. Ravenal said Johns lifted the motif used in the piece from a passing car, but he also said Johns was often disingenuous in his explanations.
Instead, if Johns did find the motif and was inspired by a passing car, the hatchwork is “simply a means artists have used for centuries to show shape, light and depth to model things.”
“It’s to show that even at the beginning of crosshatching, the body never goes away,” said Ravenal, examining a piece called “Corpse and Mirror II.”
“In the title, there’s already that idea of a figure and a body,” he said. The image of a figure or body will continue to be present, albeit abstractly, throughout Johns crosshatching work.
We’ll leave it up to the viewer as to what they make of the images – the collection of works, especially Johns, offers a unique challenge which differs greatly from the VMFA’s previous large exhibits like Kehinde Wiley’s naturalistic works or Richmond-born photographer Louis Draper photojournalism work.
Where other exhibits might lead to broader questions, the scale and abstraction of Johns works alongside the brevity of Munch’s creates a fascinating contrast.
As for the Sweden-born Much, his famed screen printing work is given a unique focus, with a lithograph of his most recognizable “The Scream” available to audiences.
But it’s the aesthetic and design of Munch that will attract the viewer beyond “The Scream.” While Johns doesn’t shy away from controversial and sometimes “lewd” imagery, Much’s grasp on the macabre is equally emotionally charged.
Ravenal’s pairing of the two has less to do with specific content of the images and more to do with linked aesthetic. Munch’s work incorporating woodgrain is an excellent example of this.
Two woodcuts highlight this work. Versions of his famous “Kiss” motif, involving a couple in such tight embrace their heads are fused into one, feature both a subtle use of the woodgrain and another another where the figures are almost entire made from the pattern.
Johns, who developed a sculpture of a Savarin-brand coffee can (top image) filled with paint brushes into a painting which would eventually be a self portrait, found use for woodgrain along the boarder of some of his works.
“Johns is an experimental printmaker… Everybody’s aware of Munch as one of the most experimental print makers of the 21st century, and one of the motifs in Munch’s work is woodgrain,” Ravenal said, calling John’s use of the pattern almost cartoonish at some points.
There is content similarities as well – before long, as the image becomes more of a self portrait, the Saravin can features an ink print of Johns’ arm below the image. A similarly formatted self portrait of Munch features a skeletal arm in the same place, and this arm reoccurs in a number of pieces, acting as a kind of signature line.
The nine-gallery exhibit expands from there, with pieces that are sure to furrow eyebrows as well as intrigue amateur critics. I was sadly limited by deadline in our media preview today, but those interested will get their chance to study the images in depth when the full gallery opens Nov. 12th.
