MYRTLE BEACH, SC.- South Carolina-raised Jasper Johns, one of America’s most revered artists, has been credited with two major feats in the art world: as the artist who paved the way from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art and Minimalism, and as the creator of the highest-priced work by a living artist sold at auction (his 1959 painting False Start sold for $17 million in 1988).

Johns’ art returns to South Carolina June 5 with Jasper Johns: 41 Years of Prints at the Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum in Myrtle Beach. The exhibition opens on Tuesday, June 5 and will run through Sunday, September 2, 2007. Museum hours are from 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and from 1 – 4 p.m. Sundays. Jasper Johns: 41 Years of Prints, a collection of 60 lithographs, silkscreens, intaglios and mezzotints produced from 1960 through 2001, is on loan from the John and Maxine Belger Family Foundation of Kansas City, Missouri.

In 1953, at age 23, Johns’ career as a painter began in relative seclusion in his New York City studio. Five years later he had a one-man exhibition at Leo Castelli’s New York gallery, which the director of the Museum of Modern Art visited. A few days later MOMA’s director returned, purchased three of Johns’ works for the museum’s collection and Johns’ career was launched. In 1960 Johns’ began working with Universal Limited Art Editions to create the lithographs Target and 0 Through 9. Once again, the art world took note, and Johns’ career as a renowned fine arts printmaker was launched

Jasper Johns: 41 Years of Prints covers the period from Target to works from the 21st Century. The exhibit explores in depth what has captivated many about Johns’ prints: his exactness of line and characteristic clarity and elegance of his simplest drawn forms. Equally compelling are his works in shades of gray, exploring the visual and tactile dimensions that can be expressed in a single color.

In his paintings and prints, Johns depicted such familiar icons as flags, maps, targets, letters and numbers, striving to portray these symbols as existing outside of their symbolic context. Thus an American flag, for example, would become solely a visual object, removed from its symbolic connotations and reduced to something in and of itself, incorporating Johns’ use of textural effects and novel materials.

Jasper Johns: 41 Years of Prints is presented as part of the Art Museum’s 10th Anniversary Celebration. Admission to the Museum is free, but donations are welcome. For further information, call 843-238-2510 or visit www.MyrtleBeachArtMuseum.org.

The Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. cis a wholly nonprofit institution located across from Springmaid Pier at 3100 South Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free, but donations are welcomed. Components of Museum programs are funded in part by support from the City of Myrtle Beach, the Horry County Council and the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.