The Seasons

1989 · Print

May one see it?

Not receiving at present

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Minneapolis, United States

It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.

Checked: 3 days ago
In this state since: Sep 25, 2026
Source: The museum

On the map Museum page

About the work

For Jasper Johns, the familiar objects and signs of everyday life are ideal subjects for art. It was a radical notion in the mid-1950s, when he and other young artists rejected the emotionally-charged gestural abstraction of the previous generation. Experimenting with mundane subjects such as flags, targets, maps, letters, and numerals, Johns chose these familiar and conventional motifs as a way to negate the expressive or psychological qualities of his subject matter, presenting them as formal and conceptual entities designed to elicit contemplation. In his 1989 print The Seasons, Johns creates an amalgam of symbolic imagery that suggests the experiences and feelings associated with the fleeting change of seasons, corresponding to the rhythm of life.

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Particulars

Accession number: 2018.104.7

In the catalog

Prints Etching Contemporary art 20th century United States

Sources

Minneapolis Institute of Art
Image: Minneapolis Institute of Art — Art © Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

Meanwhile, in the life of Jasper Johns

The whole life

1973–1987
A farmhouse with a glass-walled studio at Stony Point
From 1973 to 1987 Johns kept a rustic 1930s farmhouse with a glass-walled studio in Stony Point, New York.
1988
“False Start” sells for $17.05 million
In 1988 False Start (1959) was sold at Sotheby's to Samuel I. Newhouse Jr. for $17.05 million, a record at the time for a work by a living artist at auction and the second highest price paid for an artwork at auction in the United States.
1988
Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale
In 1988 Johns received the highest honour of the 43rd Venice Biennale, the Golden Lion, for his exhibition in the United States pavilion.
1990
Elected to the National Academy of Design
In 1990, the year he was awarded the National Medal of Arts, Johns was elected an associate national academician of the National Academy of Design.
1990s
Settles in Sharon, Connecticut
Since the 1990s Johns has lived and worked in Sharon, Connecticut. After his death he plans to turn the 170-acre property into a residency providing live-work space for 18 to 24 visual artists, poets, musicians and dancers at a time.