Jasper Johns: 35 Years with Leo Castelli

This spiral-bound scrapbook catalogues a retrospective exhibit of Jasper Johns's paintings at the Leo Castelli Gallery in Manhattan, where the Pop-influenced artist had his first show in 1958. The 14 paintings reproduced in color range from cool, ironic renditions of flags and targets to recent autobiographical, free-form confessionals which have led some to claim that Johns has lost his distinctiveness as an artist. Among the dozens of black-and-white illustrations are installation photographs of Johns's previous shows at the gallery, interleaved with reviews and articles from newspapers and magazines. Goldman, who is writing a biography of Castelli, traces the fruitful friendship between Johns, the reserved, courtly Southerner who became an agent provocateur of modern art, and gallery owner Castelli, ambitious, Trieste-born refugee from Nazi-occupied France. Brundage is director of the gallery. (May)