"Who really gives a shit who is America's foremost......whatever...?" is basically where I'm coming from.

I still remember the '70s when Johns and Rauschenberg were on the cover of Time and Newsweek simultaneously. (I forget who had which cover.) Rauschenberg's cover was captioned "The Joy of Art" and Johns' was "Superartist" (or Super Artist).

I can't vote for Rauschenberg but I think he was ultimately better/more important/foremost/more "super." More "Dylan," even.

I didn't like any of the Johns late work in the last retrospective I saw. It seemed visually inert and was fussing over old ideas. Maybe it got better. But it's still a lot of years of coasting.

Probably the best American artist is one we don't know about!