VALENCIA.- The Government of Valencia has awarded the U.S. artist Jasper Johns with the Julio González Prize, an artist considered along with Robert Rauschenberg as the forerunners of American Pop Art.

The Julio González Prize awarded by the Generalitat Valenciana, is granted to a distinguished artist who in his own right-has has helped to highlight artistic creation internationally.

This year´s edition, has seen fit to propose the granting of the award to artist Jasper Johns, in recognition of his work in the field of visual arts and his contribution to modern art, as was published yesterday in the Official Gazette of the Comunitat Valenciana (DOCV).

The granting of the award coincides with the exhibition at the IVAM devoted to this artist which will be held from February 1 to April 24, 2011. The exhibition will comprise some 40 works including paintings, sculptures and drawings, and will have the character of a retrospective focusing in a particular part of his work, in which the subject of writing has always been a recurring theme from the 50's to today .

Signs, letters and numbers, as bases of nonverbal communication, typographic symbols will be the stars of this selection of paintings, sculptures and prints.

Jasper Johns is one of the most important artists of the contemporary art world in the second half of the twentieth century. Painter, sculptor, draftsman and etcher is also the author of important scenery for choreographer Merce Cunningham.

In contrast to the lyrical abstraction and abstract expressionism, the artist stands as a tireless researcher inspired by art history being true to a certain aestheticism.

Ever since the 1958 Venice Biennale has continued to be present in the most important international events, museums and foundations, placing him in a special place in art history.

Last year this award went to the American painter Frank Stella.