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