Jasper Johns was born in 1930 in Allendale, South Carolina. He studied at the University of South Carolina and went to New York to paint in 1952. In the late 1950s, he emerged as a major force on the American art scene and his work now commands record-breaking prices. Filmed at the time of the 1988 Venice Biennale, where Johns held a retrospective exhibition and received the Grand Prize, this documentary provides a rare look at the artist's career. It investigates the influences in his work, from his early days in New York to the refinement of his ideas and his interest in the philosopher Wittgenstein. It includes both new and vintage conversations with the painter and footage showing him at work in his studio. The whole range of Johns's oeuvre is covered, including his printed work and a unique book collaboration with Samuel Beckett. His friends and associates, including his agent Leo Castelli, artists Frank Stella and Richard Serra, composer John Cage and choreographer Merce Cunningham, share their thoughts on Johns's art.