Jasper Johns’un Kışkırtıcılığı: Resimsel İfadenin Temsilî Sınırlarını Zorlamak

Yıl 2020, Cilt: 29 Sayı: 2, 521 - 539, 16.11.2020

Başak Keki

https://doi.org/10.29135/std.678483

Öz

Bu çalışma Jasper Johns’un kabaca 1955-1965 yılları arasındaki çalışmalarındaki görsellik ve sözel dil arasındaki ilişkiyi inceler. Sanatçının Numbers in Colors / Renkli Numaralar (1958-59), Gray Alphabets / Gri Alfabeler (1956), False Start / Hatalı Çıkış (1959), Jubilee / Jübile (1959), By the Sea / Deniz Kenarı (1961), Fool’s House / Ahmağın Evi (1962), Map / Harita (1961), The Critic Sees / Eleştirmen Görüyor (1961), Voice / Ses (1964-67), Voice 2 / Ses 2 (1982), Light Bulb / Ampul (1958) ve Watchman / Gözcü (1964) gibi işleri görsel ve sözel dillerin birbirleriyle ne kadar yakın ilişki içerinde olduğunu açığa çıkararak bize resimsel ifadenin sınırlarına ilişkin meseleleri araştırma alanı sağlar. Ancak bu alanlar arasındaki ilişki içerisinde yoğun olarak kesinti, karmaşa ve gerilim de barındırır. Herhangi bir görsel sanat eserini doğru bir şekilde değerlendirebilmek için eninde sonunda bakma alışkanlıklarımızı askıya alıp bakma eyleminin kendisine has karmaşıklığını fark etmek durumunda kalırız. Johns’un eserleri de bakma deneyiminin çeşitliliğine (görmek, seyretmek, selamlamak, okumak, saymak, incelemek, ezberlemek, casusluk yapmak, röntgenlemek, gözünü dikmek vs.) dikkat çekerek bize görme alışkanlıklarımızı sorgulatır. Bu çalışma, Johns’un eserlerini bu denli kışkırtıcı kılan özelliğin görsel alemin kendi içinde saf bir alan olmaktan ziyade sürekli olarak sözel dil ve diğer duyuların etkisine maruziyetinin vurgulanması olduğunu iddia eder.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Jasper Johns, resim dili, görsel, sözel dil, temsil, resim sanatı

The Provocation of Jasper Johns: Pushing the Representational Limits of Pictorial Expression

Öz

This paper explores the relationship between visuality and verbal language in the works of Jasper Johns roughly between the period of 1955-1965. Works such as Numbers in Colors (1958-59), Gray Alphabets (1956), False Start (1959), Jubilee (1959), By the Sea (1961), Fool’s House (1962), Map (1961), The Critic Sees (1961), Voice (1964-67), Voice 2 (1982), Light Bulb (1958) and Watchman (1964) provide us with fertile ground to explore issues pertinent to the limits of pictorial expression by revealing how visual and verbal spaces are intricately interwoven. However, the relationship in between also embeds a great deal of tension hosting constant interruption and violation. For a fair evaluation of any visual artwork, we end up having to suspend our habitual ways of looking and realize the complexity of the basic task of looking. These works challenge our vision by making us question the diverse experience of looking (seeing, beholding, saluting, reading, counting, studying, memorizing, spying, voyeurizing, gazing etc.). The paper claims that what grants Johns’ art its provocative power is the realization that the realm of the visual is never a pure space but is constantly influenced by verbal and other senses.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Jasper Johns, pictorial language, image, verbal language, representation, painting

Kaynakça

• Benjamin, W. (1999). On the Mimetic Faculty. In Michael W. Jennings, Howard Eiland and Gary Smith (Eds.), Rodney Livingstone (Trans.), Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings Vol. 2 1927-34 (720-722). Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
• Bernstein, R. (1985). Jasper Johns’ Paintings and Sculptures 1954-1974: “The Changing Focus of the Eye”. Michigan: UMI Research Press.
• Crichton, M. (1976). Jasper Johns. New York: Thames and Hudson.
• Fisher, P. (Winter 1990), Making and Effacing Art, Critical Inquiry 16, 313-354.
• Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and Time. (Trans. John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson) Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing.
• Higginson, P. (1976), Jasper’s Non-Dilemma: A Wittgensteinian Approach, New Lugano Review, No. 10, 53-60.
• Johns, J. (1975). Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968). In Joseph Masheck (Ed.), Marcel Duchamp in Perspective (147), New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc.
• Johns, J. (1956). Gray Alphabet [Encaustic and Collage on canvas]. Private Collection, New York. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/24404931@N04/2428610113. Access: 21.01. 2020.
• Johns, J. (1958-59). Numbers in Colors [Encaustic and collage on canvas]. Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/95389860@N06/9092565813. Access: 21.01. 2020.
• Johns, J. (1961). By The Sea [Encaustic and collage on canvas]. Private collection, New York. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/cone/cone2-16-07_detail.asp?picnum=6. Access: 21.01. 2020.
• Johns, J. (1959). False Start [Oil on canvas]. Private collection, New York. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.art-mine.com/collectorscorner/art-prices-collectors/false-start-1959-jasper-johns/. Access: 21.01. 2020.
• Johns, J. (1959). Jubilee [Oil and collage on canvas]. Collection of David H. Steinmetz, New York. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/saltz/saltz2-25-08_detail.asp?picnum=3. Access: 21.01. 2020.
• Johns, J. (1964-67). Voice [Encaustic and objects on canvas]. The Menil Collection in Houston, Texas. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.art-trainer.com/blog/2018/10/28/the-tacit-dimension-perception-language-and-the-construction-of-meaning. Access: 21.01. 2020.
• Johns, J. (1982). Voice 2 [Oil and collage on canvas]. Museum of Modern Art, New York. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.moma.org/collection/works/71035. Access: 21.01. 2020.
• Johns, J. (1958). Light Bulb [Sculp-metal]. Collection of the artist, New York. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.shafe.co.uk/jasper_johns-_light_bulb_i_and_ii_1958/. Access: 21.01. 2020.
• Johns, J. (1962). Fool’s House [Oil on canvas with objects]. Collection of Leo Castelli, New York. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.leninimports.com/jasper_johns_gallery_1.html/ . Access: 21.01. 2020.
• Johns, J. (1964). Watchman [Oil on canvas with objects]. Collection of Mr. Hiroshi Teshigahara, Tokyo. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.artsy.net/artwork/jasper-johns-watchman-5. Access: 21.01. 2020.
• Johns, J. (1955). Flag [Encaustic, oil and collage on fabric]. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucker/8491292686. Access: 21.01. 2020.
• Johns, J. (1961). Map [Encaustic and collage on canvas]. Private collection, New York. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79372. Access: 21.01. 2020.
• Johns, J. (1961). The Critic Sees [Sculp-metal over plaster with glass]. Private collection, New York. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/jonseidman1988/4307526464. Access: 21.01. 2020.
• Krauss, R. (Summer 1976), Jasper Johns: The Functions of Irony, October, Vol. 2, 91-99.
• Mitchell, W. J. T. (1996). Word and Image. In Robert S. Nelson and Richard Shiff (Eds.), Critical Terms for Art History (47-57). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
• Prinz, J. (1991). Art Discourse / Discourse in Art. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
• - (Summer 1980), ‘Foirades/Fizzles’/Beckett/Johns, Contemporary Literature, Vol. 21, No. 3, Art and Literature, 480-510.
• Saussure, F. (2010). Course in General Linguistics. In Vincent B. Leitch, William E. Cain, Laurie Finke, Barbara Johnson, John McGowan, T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting and Jeffrey J. Williams (Eds.), The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism (850-866). New York: Norton & Company Inc.
• Steinberg, L. (1972). Other Criteria: Confrontations with Twentieth-Century Art. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Varnedoe, K. (1996). Jasper Johns: A Retrospective. New York: The Museum of Modern Arts.
• Wittgenstein, L. (1973). Philosophical Investigations. (G.E. M. Anscombe, Trans.), New York: Pearson Publishing Company.