Good morning.

One of this year’s most eagerly awaited exhibitions has opened at the Broad museum in downtown Los Angeles: six decades of work by Jasper Johns. The Times interviewed Mr. Johns for the Arts & Leisure section last Sunday. And we talked this week to Joanne Heyler, the Broad’s founding director, who co-curated the exhibition, which runs through May 13. This email interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: How did the Johns exhibit end up at the Broad?

Joanne Heyler: “Jasper Johns: Something Resembling Truth” is the result of four years’ worth of curatorial and institutional collaboration between the Broad and the Royal Academy of the Arts in London. Edith Devaney, a curator at the Royal Academy, and I had a meeting four years ago as part of her earliest explorations about a Johns show. She inquired whether Eli and Edye Broad and the Broad Art Foundation would lend artworks from our very deep Johns holdings for such a show in L.A. We felt a responsibility, as the only L.A. museum with a deep collecting relationship to the artist, to hold this show here.

Q: How is this show organized?

JH: This exhibition is thematic rather than chronological, which with an artist like Johns — who returns many times, over decades, to motifs and ideas — is a very rewarding way to understand the work. Eight thematic sections give you a foothold in Johns’ ruminations, through his work, on the nature of perception, on literary figures, memory, mortality and more.

Q: Could you point out a few of your pieces people should be sure to see? (I know, it’s like asking to choose a favorite child, but indulge us.)