Jasper Johns (b. 1930) is widely accepted as one of the most significant and influential artists to emerge in America in the post-war period. Beginning his career in New York at a time when the modern art scene was dominated by the formidable paintings of the Abstract Expressionists, Johns forged a unique artistic path that echoed the painterly qualities of his contemporaries whilst working with materials and themes in a manner that questioned the very nature of art.