Map

A map of the United States sprawls across the canvas, the names of the states stenciled in capitals, the whole washed over in loose, vigorous, dripping strokes of red, yellow, and blue. Jasper Johns took another familiar, ready-made image - the map everyone knows - and treated it as a ground for free, painterly handling, the boundaries blurred and the colors spilling past the lines. Now in the Museum of Modern Art, Map fuses the cool conceptual play of Pop with the gestural energy of Abstract Expressionism, a known sign half-dissolved into vivid, expressive paint.