The Passage of Time: Jasper Johns’s The Seasons (1985–86) and 5 Postcards (2011)

From the 1970s onward, the theme of human mortality gained increasing prominence in the oeuvre of Jasper Johns (1930). His four paintings collectively known as The Seasons (1985–1986) return to motifs from early works, recontextualized in compositions that reflect on the passage of time and the ages of man. At age 81, Johns revisited The Seasons and other early works in 5 Postcards (2011). Both series of paintings present puzzling contemplations on themes like aging and mortality, each citing, recycling, and referencing in unique ways former motifs and inspirational sources. The only certainty in these puzzling works, whose meaning seems increasingly unstable, is arguably impending death.