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Sometimes I see it and then paint it. Other times I paint it and then see it. Both are impure situations, and I prefer neither. At every point in nature there is something to see. My work contains similar possibilities for the changing focus of the eye.

— Jasper Johns Sixteen Americans (1959)

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More quotes by Jasper Johns

To be an artist you have to give up everything, including the desire to be a good artist.

Cubism is an anatomical chart of a way of seeing external objects. But I want to confuse the meaning of the act of looking.

I'm especially interested in the music of John Cage.. .I would like to do some experimenting with the relationship between his freeform sound and free-form art.

I don't want my work to be an exposure of my feelings.

People say that my works are "neutral". But if you paint something, it is "something", and it cannot be neutral. Being neutral is a mere expression of a form of intention.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jasper Johns (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.