Jasper Johns

JASPER JOHNS, ARGUABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT LIVING POST WAR AND CONTEMPORARY ARTIST

Joseph K. Levene Fine Art, Ltd. is privileged to offer a broad selection of over 30 original Jasper Johns prints, including museum-quality signed, numbered and dated Limited Edition Prints from the Artist’s Series of Targets, Numbers, Flags, Crosshatch, Savarins and Seasons. The selection features iconic prints created by Jasper Johns in various media, such as screenprints, lithographs, aquatints and etchings. These Jasper Johns Prints represent the artist’s most significant collaborations with renowned major print publishers, including Universal Limited Art Editions (U.L.A.E.), Simca Print Artists, Inc., Petersburg Press, Low Road Studios and Gemini G.E.L.

The condition of Jasper Johns prints is crucial in preserving their integrity and value. When purchasing a Jasper Johns print, condition matters. The presence of mat staining, foxing, faded colors, trimmed or over-matted prints can significantly impact aesthetics, value, and long-term appreciation. Therefore, it’s essential to be cautious of dealers who claim prints are in good condition despite these issues. This may be a deliberate attempt to mislead buyers. Transparency is vital in the art market, and dealers who intentionally omit condition details are not acting in the best interest of the collector. Additionally, it’s advisable to avoid buying prints from art dealers who artificially enhance colors in photos, distorting the true condition of the artwork. By choosing art dealers who provide accurate documentation even if it reveals imperfections, buyers can make well-informed decisions, ensuring the authenticity and value of Jasper Johns prints over time.

A globally recognized authority on Jasper Johns, Joseph K. Levene Fine Art, Ltd. only buys and sells original Jasper Johns prints void of condition issues, meaning we do NOT buy or sell any Jasper Johns print that is faded, torn, trimmed, repaired, cleaned, foxed, discolored and/or over-matted. Unlike many auction firms and art dealers, Joseph K. Levene Fine Art, Ltd. will NOT buy or sell any Jasper Johns Print that is condition challenged even if bargain priced.

Jasper Johns, now 96, is widely regarded as one of the most important living American artists and a defining figure of postwar and contemporary art. For more than seven decades, Johns has continued to produce an extraordinary range of paintings, drawings, prints, monotypes, and sculpture. Named an American Legend by The New York Times, Jasper Johns has been making headlines since the mid 1950’s. According to As The New Yorker has observed, "more words may have been written about Jasper Johns than about any other American artist who isn't Andy Warhol". Multi-volume catalogue raisonnes documenting Jasper Johns paintings & sculpture, over 800 drawings and monotypes were published in 2017 and 2018.

Earlier in 2026, Jasper Johns was the subject of a highly acclaimed exhibition titled Jasper Johns: Between the Clock and the Bed. Presented by Gagosian in collaboration with Castelli Gallery, the exhibition was held at Gagosian’s prestigious 980 Madison Avenue gallery. The exhibition centered on Johns’s celebrated crosshatch paintings and drawings created between 1973 and 1983, bringing together rarely seen works alongside significant loans from renowned museums and private collections. Notably, the exhibition marked the fiftieth anniversary of the first presentation of this body of work at Castelli Gallery in 1976. In doing so, it placed the crosshatch works within the broader context of Johns’s illustrious career and his ongoing exploration of themes such as repetition, perception, memory, and the material possibilities inherent in painting and drawing.

Among the highlights were all six Between the Clock and the Bed paintings (1981–83), which drew on Edvard Munch’s self-portrait from 1940–43. Notably, Between the Clock and the Bed, 1983, owned by Jimmy Iovine and Liberty Ross, incorporated imagery from Johns’s crosshatch motifs, weaving together subtle tonal gradations, layered surfaces, and gestural mark-making.

Many of the Jasper Johns limited edition prints offered by Joseph K. Levene Fine Art, Ltd. evoke these same qualities, translating the painterly layering and rhythmic mark-making of his paintings into delicate, sophisticated prints. Both Jasper Johns’s paintings and prints demonstrate his extraordinary ability to transform minimal motifs into complex and visually compelling fields.

Johns’s work is also currently the subject of Jasper Johns: Night Driver a seven-decade retrospective showcasing approximately 140 paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints, has been on exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. This prestigious exhibition, running through October 12, 2026, traces the evolution of Jasper Johns’s iconic series, encompassing flags, targets, letters, numbers, and maps from the 1950s. It also explores his increasingly intricate and introspective work of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. Together, these exhibitions underscore the remarkable breadth and continued relevance of Johns’s practice.

Remarkably Jasper Johns has had no fewer than 274 one person exhibitions at museums and galleries since his 1958 debut exhibition of Paintings at the legendary Leo Castelli Gallery. These one person exhibitions included two retrospectives at The Museum of Modern Art in 1986 and 1996 and two retrospectives at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1977 and 2021.

In 2021 Jasper Johns was celebrated with an unprecedented 7 decade retrospective collaboration from two major museums, The Whitney Museum of American Art and The Philadelphia Museum. Both museums collaborated to present Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror, a simultaneous retrospective exhibition at The Whitney Museum of American Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the largest retrospective ever mounted during Jasper Johns' seven decade career. This monumental and historical retrospective included 500 works of Jasper Johns Art, including paintings, limited edition prints, drawings and sculpture exhibited across both museums, many lent from the personal collection of Jasper Johns and shown publicly for the first time.

This joint Jasper Johns retrospective was the Artist's first major retrospective since The Museum of Modern Art hosted Jasper Johns: A Retrospective in 1996. Scott Rothkopf, deputy director and chief curator, The Whitney Museum of American Art and co-curator of Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror said he could think of no similar example of a dual-institution, simultaneous exhibition in this country. Jointly organized by The Whitney Museum of American Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror closed at both museums February 13, 2022.

In 2020, Jasper Johns was also celebrated with major museum print exhibitions, an exhibition of 100 Unique Prints created over ten days, Jasper Johns: 100 Variations On a Theme at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston that was on view until 2/16/2020; and An Art of Changes: Jasper Johns Prints, 1960–2018, a four venue six decade printmaking retrospective of 90 Jasper Johns limited edition prints in intaglio, lithography, woodcut, linoleum cut, screenprinting and lead relief from the collection of the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis that continued through 2022.

An Art of Changes: Jasper Johns Prints, 1960–2018 venues follow:
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: October 12, 2019–January 20, 2020
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis: February 16, 2020–January 3, 2021
Tampa Museum of Art, Florida: April 28, 2021–September 5, 2021
Grand Rapids Art Museum, Michigan: October 2, 2021–January 9, 2022
Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York: May 1, 2022–July 31, 2022

In 2018, Jasper Johns had two major museum exhibitions: Jasper Johns: Something Resembling Truth, a six decade retrospective that originated at the Royal Academy, London and traveled to The Broad Museum and a drawing exhibition, The Condition of Being Here: Drawings by Jasper Johns, 50 years of drawings Jasper Johns created from 1954-2016, organized by the Menil Collection, Houston. In 2017, the Virginia Museum of Fine Art hosted Jasper Johns and Edvard Munch: Love, Loss and the Cycle of Life.

These exhibitions follow the International acclaim Jasper Johns received for Jasper Johns Regrets, a 2014 exhibition organized by The Museum of Modern Art, a series of 20 paintings, watercolors, pastels and prints which traveled to the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere; Ann Tempkin, MoMA chief curator of painting and sculpture, stated Jasper Johns Regrets opens a window to Johns’ creative process.

Jasper Johns has received numerous honors and awards over the last half century; among the most prestigious, JasperJohns received the Golden Lion at the 43rd Venice Biennale in 1988, the National Medal of Arts in 1990 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. In 1973 Johns was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Jasper Johns remains one of the most influential and consistently sought-after artists in the international auction market, with approximately $596.9 million in cumulative auction sales over the past 27 years. His auction record was established by Small False Start, 1960, which sold for $55.35 million at Christie’s in November 2022 as part of the Paul G. Allen Collection. The strength of his market continued in 2026, when Gray Target, 1958 realized $28.81 million at Christie’s in May. Johns’s prints and editions also attract substantial collector interest. His screenprint Usuyuki, 1982 sold for $381,000 at Christie’s in May 2026, demonstrating the strength of demand for important works on paper alongside his major paintings. Over the past 27 years, approximately 80% of Johns’s auction offerings have sold, and 84% of sold works exceeded their low estimates, reflecting sustained international interest in his diverse body of work, from landmark paintings to prints and multiples.

In November 2023, an all time auction world record was established when Jasper Johns Flags, 1986, oil and encaustic on canvas, achieved $41 million at Sotheby’s NY. In 2016, a post-war and contemporary print auction world record was achieved when Jasper Johns Flags I (ULAE 128), 1973 from the signed and numbered limited edition of 65, fetched $1.685 million.

For seven decades, Jasper Johns has been Internationally recognized for his iconic images of Targets, Maps, Flags, Numbers, Crosshatch and Alphabets, right after The Museum of Modern Art, New York acquired Jasper Johns' breakthrough Flag, 1954-55 in 1958, a masterpiece Jasper Johns created by cutting a bedsheet using oil paint and encaustic, a method involving pigmented melted wax.

Renowned for his masterful paintings, Jasper Johns ranks among the world's greatest printmakers, often compared to Pablo Picasso, Leonardo da Vinci and Rembrandt. For Jasper Johns, printmaking encourages experimentation through the ease with which it allows him to pursue new directions. Jasper Johns innovative contributions to screenprints, etchings, linocuts and lithography have revolutionized the field of prints. Over seven decades Jasper Johns has created over 450 signed, numbered and dated limited print editions, plus scores of unique trial proofs, monotypes, hand colored proofs, etc. Given the seven and eight figure price tag of Jasper Johns works on canvas, Jasper Johns limited edition prints are still quite affordable, many still priced under six figures.

In 2007, The National Gallery of Art acquired 1,700 Jasper Johns Prints comprised of lithographs, etchings, relief prints and screenprints, including unique trial proofs and progressive proofs. The National Gallery of Art now boasts the largest, comprehensive repository of Jasper Johns Prints created by this legendary Artist over his extraordinary seven decade print career.

Significant collections of Jasper Johns Prints can be viewed in hundreds of prestigious museums around the world, including: The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Smithsonian American Art Museum Washington, D.C. and Art Institute of Chicago.

#JasperJohns Usuyuki, 1981, edition 16/85, a horizontal color screenprint, achieved $83.2K @Sothebys, double the low estimate despite being faded. https://t.co/RHpAS1tdqH https://t.co/LNToATBbSu

— Joseph K. Levene Fine Art, Ltd. (@JKLFA) May 20, 2026

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