sign in sign up
<<
Home , Artist, Art exhibition, Printmaking

Jasper Johns : process and

Author Johns, Jasper, 1930-

Date 1996

Publisher The of Modern

Exhibition URL www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/295

The Museum of 's history— from our founding in 1929 to the present—is available online. It includes exhibition catalogues, primary documents, installation views, and an index of participating .

MoMA © 2017 The Processand Printmaking Jasper Johns Processand Printmaking

I think that the picture isn't pre-formed,I think it is Johns'screative processas he recycled and refocused formed as it is made;and might be anything. his images. In a "trial proof," the image is entirely 1 —JasperJohns printed but varies in some way from the final , either in the of the , the size and type of Great artists throughout history have turned to the , or the elements of the composition. By con richness of the etched line, the transparency of the trast, a "working proof" is one that an has lithograph,and the expressivepotential of the embellished by hand, usually beginning with an early to explore new possibilities in their work and to exam stage of the print and overdrawing with chalk, ink, ine their imagery against these varied surfaces and paint, crayon, or pencil, reevaluating images without techniques., Goya, Munch, and Picassoare reworking the stone or plate. among the giants who found in the print mediums Since 1962,Johns has been precisely annotating his important aesthetic outlets that led to enormous proofs after an edition has been printed, indicating achievementsin the history of images. Jasper Johns which are trial proofs and working proofs and listing (born 1930) has been making prints since 1960, and the mediumsof any hand-appliedadditions, amassing has masteredthe mediumsof ,screenprint, evidence of the evolution of his printed images.The and the various techniques in a body of over great majority of the working proofs have been saved; three hundredprinted works. More fundamental,how Johns discarded those he felt revealed nothing about ever, is the fact that Johns has incorporated the con his working procedure and were not interesting as 2 cepts intrinsic to printmaking —reflection, reversal, independentworks. and transfer—into all aspects of his art. His prints For Johns,"Printmaking encouragesideas because have exaggerated, isolated, and compoundedthemes of the lapse of time involved The medium itself 3 3 addressedin his . The continual intercourse suggests things changed or left out." His obses betweenJohns's printmaking and his is unique sion with the repetition of images in changing con in our time; understandinghis processin printmaking texts—an obsessionperfectly aligned with the capa gives insight into the central ideasof his art in general. bilities of printmaking —has inspired him to recycle Johns's painting process involves constant altera many of his plates, stones,and screens,incorporating tion and feedback as he paints out passages and them into totally new compositions. For some prints, changesothers. He brings a similar approach to his such as Pinion (1963-66; ULAE 27), Johns returned prints, but in printmaking the proofing processallows to the stones of works never completed; for others, him to record the stages of an image's development: such as Flags II (1970; ULAE 86) and Decoy II Additions, subtractions,and other shifts are reflected (1971; ULAE125), rejected impressionsof previously in the extensive body of proofs that result from the completed images served as the foundation for new creation of each edition. These proofs provide a works. Occasionally,as in Fragment—According to unique and invaluable opportunity to understand What —Bent "Blue" (1971; ULAE 92), only the elements on the working proofs illustrate proof (fig. 1), printed on newsprint, reveals that the how prints have developed as extensions of earlier black background was an early decision. The back images. Other proofs reveal how surfaces have been ground is the only printed element in this proof; the rethought, tonal and spatial relationships reversed, areas for the cansand baseare left blank, with crayon and paper choicesresolved. additions loosely defining their form. Johns has said That prints embody the history of thought and that the dark backgroundwas important as a meansto action inherent in their creation appealsto Johns's long-held fascination with visual memory and the evolutionary process of imagemaking. The proofs of his first printed endeavors, the portfolios 0-9 (1960-63; ULAE 17-19), illustrate how he would eventually exploit this aspect of printmaking and manipulate lithography in provocative ways. All the images of the portfolios were made from the samestone, erased and reworked after each number was printed. Onone proof, Johnsbracketed areas in the background in crayon and wrote "hold" to instruct the printers to reserve this part of the stone's history for 4 the next numeral. Johns has referred to the working proofs as "thoughts, experiments, and asides" that occurred during the working 5 5 process. The first work for which the evo lution can be traced through an extensive body of such "thoughts" is his celebrated 1964 lithograph Ale Cans.No preliminary exist for this image, making the working proofs the only clues to its pro gressivedevelopment. Ale Cansis Johns'sfirst print depicting one of his —the 1960 Painted i Bronze. The proofs illustrate his struggle Fig. 1. Working proof for Ale Cans.1964. Lithograph with crayon 5/8" with the illusionistic questions involved in additions,sheet: 26%t,x 20 (67.5 x 52.4 cm).The Museumof Mod the translation of a three-dimensionalobject to a two- ern Art, NewYork. Gift of the artist in honor ofTatyana Grosman Cover: Ale Cans.West Islip, New York: Universal Limited Art Edi 3/4" dimensional surface. Although a precise order of the tions, 1964. Lithograph, sheet: 22% x 17 (58.1 x 45.1 cm). The proofs is difficult to determine, progressionsof details Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the Celeste and Armand help to establish their sequence.The first working Bartos Foundation 6 6 flatten out the spatial depth. It also providesa dark, ground alone that flattens the space of this painterly sombercontext for the ,one which intensifies perspectivalreplication of the sculpture.As in the first its melancholic spirit. The crayon scribble over the proof, only the background is printed, indicating an outline of the left can servesas an early indication of early stage in the progression of proofs. Now, it is the pictorial devices Johns would use to define the heavily painted over with black and gray gouache.The roundedcans. The second working proof (fig. 2), hand-painted with gouacheand acrylic paints mixed with metallic powders,is the most illusionistic. It is the black back-

3 labels are delicately painted, creating the initial sense of realism. But Johns has painted shadowson the right

2 sides of the cans and base,conveying depth as though 7 7 the image were lit from the left. Theseand other cor Figs.2-4. Workingproofs for Ale Cans.1964.The Museumof Modern respondingdetails, such as the holes in the top of one Art, NewYork. Gift of the artist in honor ofTatyana Grosman of the cans, contribute to making this proof the most 5/s" Fig. 2. Lithograph with paint additions, sheet: 22%>x 17 (57.4 x specifictribute to Painted Bronze. 44.8 cm) In the next two proofs, the realistic depiction of Fig. 3. Lithograph with chalk and crayon additions, sheet: 22% x 3/a" 17 (58.0x45.1 cm) the sculpture has been adandoned in favor of more 5/s"5/s Fig. 4. Lithograph with ink and crayon additions,sheet: 22 x 17 abstract renderings. Shadows have been eliminated (57.5 x 44.8 cm) and the labels merely sketched in. Johns has always been interested in the different surfaces attainable tion. The right-hand label suggestsa mirror, reflecting with different mediums,and in the contrast between the left in paler, starker form. Painted Bronze is printed and hand-appliedtextures; he exploited those Johns's only sculpture to double an image, and the contrasts here. The olive cans and base are now experiments in this working proof focus on comparing printed, and a metallic ink simulates the bronze of the two labels. This juxtaposition and mirroring of like but dissimilar motifs became an important concern for Johns as he explored his vocabulary of 8 images in changingcontexts. The last working proof in the series is entirely printed, with the exception of the black crayon lines that loosely outline the image.The printed areas here are the same as those in the final, editioned print (cover). Most noticeably,Johns has returned in large part to the dimensional effects of the second proof (fig. 2). The printed labels closely resemble the painted versions of the earlier stage, though here, instead of shadows, Johns drew black lithographic crayon lines to suggestvolume. But typical of Johns, every mark of illusionism is countered by its denial. The surroundingrectangle, freely drawn and printed in black, confoundsour reading of the cansas volumetric and reinforces the two-dimensionality of the paper. Denyingthe spatial perspective,Johns created the per ceptual ambiguity characteristic of his strongestwork. This progression of "experiments and asides" is our first glimpse of Johns'sapproach to the depiction of a sculptural image on paper and reveals the complex rethinking that distinguisheshis working process. 4 Ale Cansis anomalousin Johns'sart of the 1960s. the sculpture. In the third proof (fig. 3), the ocher Typically in this period, when Johnschose to represent label has been applied with crayon, as hasthe red and objects, he escheweda drawn depiction, preferring to black scribbling. While no words are decipherable, affix the object directly to the canvas.In printmaking, the scribbling is certainly suggestive of lettering. this translated into tracing, imprinting, spelling, or In the fourth proof (fig. 4), Johns left the label back photographingthe objects. Pinion, for example,begun grounds blank, allowing the white of the paper to in 1963, incorporates the impression of Johns's own show through and dramatically flattening the cans body kneeling on the stone in a sprinter's pose, the against the picture plane. He used his fingerprints to name of each body part in stenciled letters, and the crudely indicate color areas on the labels, creating first photographic element to appear in his prints: a vibrant textural effects and contrasts with the printed detail from the 1965 painting Eddingsville.The photo surfacesof the cans but undermininga realistic depic graph itself had becomean object to be included in the lithograph. In the numerousproofs for this lithograph, the progression of proofs as he experiments with a Johns experimented with the balance between auto spectrumof reversalsand figure-ground relationships. graphic and photographic elements. This balance There is an overall stasis in a beautiful and fluid becamea critical issuewith the increasingimportance early working proof on newsprint (fig. 5). In it, Johns 12 12 of photographyin Johns'sprints of the late 1960s and has printed a mottled tusche background. The 1970s, as in PassageI and II (1966; ULAE 29, 30), slats and body casts are hand-drawn,also in tusche. Voice (1967; ULAE31), Decoy (1971; ULAE 98), and The castsseem to float in a liquid environmentcreated the Good Time Charley series (1972; ULAE 103-18). In Four Panels from Untitled 1972 (1973-74), one of Johns'smost structurally and conceptuallyintricate prints, the fourth panel hinges on the interaction between autographictextures and photographicrepli cations.The print is basedon Untitled (1972), a four- panel painting containing Johns's first cross-hatch motif. One panel of the painting is an overall cross- pattern in secondarycolors, and two are bold red, white, and black flagstone —all three seeminglyabstract in appearance.The startling fourth panel has sevenwood stretcher bars, each with a wax cast of a body part affixed to it, crisscrossingover a 9 9 subdued brown background. This complex and dis jointed work inspired five drawings and over fifty prints. Johns began working on the prints within a year after the painting, and they remained the focus of his 1 0 10 printmaking for the next three years. In the courseof his work on the large four-part lithograph, he com pleted two prints of the fourth panel alone,as well as a series of sevenlithographs of the individual body casts 11 11 from the fourth panel. The Castspanel was the locus of Johns's reexamination of the painting, and thirty working and trial proofs exist for its corresponding panel in the lithograph, more than for any other print in his career.A close analysisreveals Johns's efforts to 5 establish a balance between the components of the Figs.5-7. Proofs for Four Panelsfrom Untitled 1972. 1973. Collec panel itself— casts, bars, and background—and its tion the artist overall integration with the other panels of flat, Fig. 5. Working proof 2D. Lithograph with tusche additions, sheet: 7/b" 467i6 x 32 (117.9x 83.5 cm) 5/8 abstract . The contrasts between the textures Fig. 6. Trialproof 5D. Lithograph,sheet: 42 x 29%" (108.3x76.0 cm) and of the photographiccasts, the wood slats, Fig. 7. Working proof 10D. Lithograph with chalk, crayon, and paint and the backgroundoccupied Johns through most of additions,sheet: 42% x 29%" (108.4 x 76 cm) by the unified tonalities of the brown paper and watery One of Johns's next experiments, a heavily over medium.To avoid the casts,as he had for the drawn working proof with chalk, crayon, and paint individual Castsfrom Untitled, Johnsdecided to photo- additions (fig. 7), focuseson subtle spatial effects and

\md M

graph the Casts panel of the painting. The photo color. Indications of these interests appear in a margin graphic element could then be treated as an object on notation: "Violet and orange under wood." Back its own and manipulated. ground, slats, and casts are printed in near tones of In an early trial proof (fig. 6), Johns attempted to brown and gray. But for the first time, the wood slats unify the compositionwith linear patterns, black scrib are not uniform. Johns has highlighted two of the slats bles on the background,and a wood grain for the slats. with white paint, creating a layered senseof shallow Tonesof brown and black predominate in this version. space as they now more clearly pass under the other The casts are now dramatically printed with dark bars. In addition, their cross format, with face and shadows,reminiscent of old photographsand in stark torso attached, intensifiesthe allusion to a crucifixion, contrast with the autographicstyle of the background. already implicit in the motif of the body on wood 1 3 13 This highly romantic treatment of the casts does not boards. Johns covered the backgroundquadrants of appear in any of the later proofs. this proof in chalk passagesof yellow, violet, and blue- light brown. Roughlydrawn shadowson the casts flat ten out their illusionistic tendenciesand contribute to a sense of overall pattern. Color has been restricted largely to the markings on the slats. The dialogue between positive and negative areas continues in later proofs. Johns then tried another background plate, this time spraying the plate with tusche resulting in a less denseand more porous sur-

8 green diagonal strokes, and added strong color out lines along the slats. Here, his experimentation has led to a jigsaw puzzle effect in the background;colored segments,the yellow in particular, jump out and con fuse the spatial coherence.The idea of segments of varied color does not occur again after this sensuous proof. The next working proof (fig. 8) introduces a new 9 backgroundplate, coveringthe quadrantsbetween the slats with tonal rather than linear passages.Johns's Fig. 8. Working proof 11D for Four Panels from Untitled 1972. interest in tonal reversals is apparent as he first 1973. Lithograph with chalk and crayon additions, sheet: 42% x 29%" (108.5 x 76 cm). the artist attempts this version,creating a dark backgroundand Fig. 9. Four Panels from Untitled 1972 (panel D). 1973-74. LosAnge light slats, only to reverse the contrast in the next, les: Gemini G.E.L., 1974. Lithograph with embossingon four sheets, where the slats are now black and the backgroundis a eachsheet approx.: 40 x 28W (101.6 x 72.4 cm). Collectionthe artist face. In the final print (fig. 9), he also minimized the about etching, is the ability of the copper plate to store range of textures, substituting a washy,brushed effect multiple layers of information. One can work in one for the wood grain. Color subtly invades the back way on a plate, later work in another way,and the print 1 6 16 ground in sprayedareas of red in the center,blue in the can show these different times in one moment." This upper right, and yellow in the lower left. In a late technical facility also appealed to Johns's interest in proof, he printed the slats in black, only to reject the memory and reflection, ideas that resurface through high contrast in favor of a light, subduedbrown, closer out the Land's End images. to the tones of the casts and background,for the edi- The compositionof the 1978 etching is basedon a tioned print. The gray body casts bring little attention haunting, dark blue-gray painting of 1963. Fifteen to themselves, almost blending into the wood slats; years later, Johns transformed the image into a light, only non-bodyattributes suchas the sock and the shoes airy, and colorful etched version. Although closely on the feet are printed in color. Subtleties predomi replicating certain aspects of the painting, even the nate, and contrasts are softened in the final print. The direction of a brushstroke in some areas, he removed casts seemto float, like the flagstones,across the sur its ominoussense of a drowning figure. The handprint face. The "thoughts, experiments, and asides" that used in both versionsappears lost and helpless in the Johns created in the course of the resolution of this larger painted work; in the print, it becomesa com complex and disturbing image are evidence of a manding authorial mark. The print also represents a process involving trials and reversals, positives and color version of the dark, nearly monochromaticpaint negatives, and a continual questioning of ways of ing, a commontranslation for Johns—as if the overall imagemaking. heavy blue-gray paint had been lifted to reveal the 1 7 17 In the 1970s,Johns masteredthe mediumsof aqua white backgroundin the print. The color words and 14 14 tint and screenprint. He explored the former in the their reflections now dominate the composition and illustrated Foirades/Fizzles(1976; ULAE173) by shimmer on the surface, enlivened by the black and Samuel Beckett, a scrutinizing exegesison the untitled color scribbled lines. There are numerousallusions to four-panel painting of 1972. Initially, he was wary of water in the painting—from the title to the drowning etching techniquesincluding , becausehe felt arm —which reinforce the idea of reflection. The pud he could not control their sensuoustextures. However, dling aqueoussurface of a 1977 Land's Em/drawing in working in 1975-76 in on Foirades/Fizzleswith ink and watercolor also suggeststhis interpretation. , a renowned master etching In the ethereal working proof with crayon addi , Johns learned to manipulate the tonal range tions (fig. 10), Johns outlined the major compositional 15 and textural qualities available in aquatint. elements in black etching with a bamboopen. He used Theseskills were instrumental in the creation of an lift-ground etching techniques, in which the artist extraordinary group of ,beginning with Land's draws directly on the plate, to achieve the fluidity of End in 1978 (fig. 11), in which Johns reworked, reori lines seen here. Johns added crayon to determine the ented, and recombined three copper plates over a colors of the aquatint areas in the edition. period of fourteen years. In etching, in particular, the Johns used three copper plates to make Land's history of an image's creation can be carried in the End, one for the black elementsand two for the color. plate from one work to the next, making it a perfect In a tour de force on the theme of visual memory,he vehicle for Johns's fascination with visual memory. reworked eachof the plates,imparting new contextsto "For me," Johns has said, "the most interesting thing each. Most simply,in 1979 he reworked the black plate and editioned Land's End II (ULAE 205), a dizzying, elements are subsumedin the pattern of lines. The Pollock-like overall surface from which the handprint shallow senseof space,created by the letters passing 1 8 18 emerges.In this graphic representation,nearly all the under and over the arm, the "device circle," and the

nn

10

11 Fig. 10. Working proof for Land's End. 1978. Lift-ground aquatint horizontal grid line, seemsfurther compressedwithout 5/i6" and with crayon additions, sheet: 36 x 24 (91.5 x 61.7 cm). Collection the artist the color. Fig. 11. Land's End. London and New York: Petersburg Press,1979 Comparableto Johns's expansiveand imaginative (dated 1978). Lift-ground aquatint, spit bite, and drypoint, sheet: 42 x approachto lithography,he reworked all three of the 2" 29y (106.7 x 74.9 cm).The Museumof Modern Art, New York. Gift Land's End etching plates and usedthem as the foun of Elinor and EdmundGrasheim dation for a set of three prints publishedin 1982, Unti Fig. 12. Working proof (2nd ) for Untitled (Blue). 1982. Lift- tled (Red), Untitled (Yellow), and Untitled (Blue) 7/i6 ground aquatint and spit bite with tusche additions, sheet: 41 x (ULAE 224, 225, and 226, respectively).Johns added 7/V' 29 (105.2 x 74.8 cm). Collection the artist Fig. 13. Untitled (Blue). London and New York: Petersburg Press, a new plate of flat color for each print and combinedit 3A" 1982. Lift-ground aquatint and spit bite, sheet: 42Vax 29 (107 x with one from Land's End. Each was printed in the 75.5 cm). Collection the artist muted monochrome colors of their titles. The set reflects his increasing interest in patterning and tex with Land's End II visible underneath.A new,extended ture in these years, and is dominated by motifs of arm reflects the Land's End arm seen below the con 19 repeatedcircles and handprints.Theallusions to water stellation of circles. are faint remembrancesand, while knowledgeof the Untitled (Blue) (fig. 13) is the most similar in com earlier prints is not essential for the appreciation of position to Land's End; the lettering, device circle, the new set, the viewer's awareness of Land's End armprint, and muchof the backgroundbrushwork from focusesattention on the issuesof memory and reflec the 1978 plate remain. In the working proof with tion that Johns explored in these works. tusche additions (fig. 12), the most obvious changes

12 13 For Untitled (Red), he rotated one of the 1978 are already apparent; Johns vertically bisected the plates 180 degrees—a type of reflection —before image into light and dark halves by extending the fin reworking it. The device circle now appears in the gers with a fan of lines and the right side with lower left, filled with rows of small circles. Johns's a dark wash background. He experimented with the handprints enliven the surface. In Untitled (Yellow), important "BLUE" title lettering, isolated now on a the pattern of circles spreads over the entire sheet, white rectangle. Negative/positive relationships are intensified by Johns having printed the letters as dark pation with the changing meaning of language in 20 on light on dark. Playing with the spatial ambiguities, changingcontexts. he wrote "BLUE" three times, each on a different In 1984, in an unusualtwist, Johns made a paint plane,and addeda cursivescript in tuscheon top of the ing on three panels following these three prints, 2 1 21 double letters from Land's End. rather than preceding them. Not unlike the transla In the final print, the white rectangle has becomea tion from the painted Land's End to the etched ver trompe-l'oeil handkerchief nailed to the background, sion, Johns traced some of his aquatint strokes almost 22 22 reminiscent of the Cubist works Johns was looking at precisely in the painting's encaustic surface. In in this period. The cursive "blue" appears with only a 1991,Crommelynck brought the copper plates for the shadowof the previousstencil form visible underneath, Untitled (Red), (Yellow), and (Blue) prints to New a subtle reminder of the plate's history. The pun of York to ask Johns if he wanted to cancel them. It is printing the word "blue," meaning sad, on a handker customary to deface the plates and stones used in the chief as a Veronica'sveil, is typical of Johns'spreoccu creation of a print after the edition is printed to

14 ensure no unauthorized proofs. Johns has resisted Fig. 14. Untitled. West Islip, New York: Universal Limited Art Edi doing this to be able to recycle his images in later tions, 1991. Lift-ground aquatint, soft-ground etching, spit bite, and works. In keeping with this practice, instead of drypoint, sheet: 41% x 78" (106.4 x 198.2 cm).The Museumof Mod destroying the plates that Crommelynck brought to ern Art, NewYork. Gift of Emily Fisher Landau Fig. 15. Trial proof (primarieswith secondaries)for Untitled. 1991. him, Johns returned to them once again for further Lift-ground aquatint, soft-ground etching, spit bite, and drypoint, elaboration, deciding to print all three abutting on 23/i*>/i6" sheet: 42 3 x 77B (107.2 x 197.7cm). Collection the artist one sheet. Unifying this monumental image was a challenge. arm on the right balancesthe prominent downward For the 1991 untitled print (fig. 14), Johns printed the arrow from the Untitled (Red) plate on the left (sug 2 4 24 entire image in black and added an overall grid. He gested from its rotation of the original Land's End also emphasizedthe horizontal divisions of density, plate). The two arms in the central panel are a rotated shade,and surface as the eye movesup the image.The reflection of the mirrored "YELLOW"in the right panel.

15 staggering patterning of grids, circles, and handprints, The"RED" at the upper left nowappears twice, the free and the cacophony of ruled, imprinted, scribbled, hand word reflected in stencil. As in the 1982 set, the brushed,and dripped marks is more intensethan in any panelson either end are revolvedimages of eachother. 25earlier printed work. The device circle in each panel Johns's experiments with these plates did not end is highlighted with surface effects. These textures are when the 1991 edition of Untitled was complete. He compoundedby the handprints at left and the overall made a set of sixteen dazzling trial proofs, exhausting 26 26 circle pattern of the center panel. The senseof layer all of the possiblecolor combinations. In one of the ing and spacefrom the earlier plates is intensified and simpler proofs, annotated"Black with Primaries," the here proceedsfrom shallowest to deepest across the black print appears over backgrounds of solid red, panels,as flattening devicessuch as palm imprints and yellow, and blue, now brighter than the colors in the 27 27 drips characterize the left panel and perspectival 1982 prints. In one of the most striking of the color spaceis suggestedby the grid in the right panel. proofs, marked"Primaries with Secondaries"(fig. 15), A myriad of reflections and rotations bounceacross the color is rotated: The black of the earlier proof is all three panels,providing a subtle cohesiveglue. The printed in the primaries and the primaries are printed in their complements.The reflections of red, yellow, Johns dissected and rebuilt Land's End in these and blue in their complementsof green, purple, and prints, isolating parts and reconfiguringthem into new orange produce the most extraordinary and electric wholes.They are extraordinary examplesof the facil color anywherein Johns'sprintmaking.The imagesare ity of printmaking and its compatibility with Johns's transformed again as the yellow arm of the central continuous search for alternatives, variations, oppo- panel thrusts itself at the viewer, and the underlying sites, negatives,and rotations of his images.He manip scribbles, printed in yellow, shoot like sparks from a ulated the three plates from 1978 over a period of dramatically lit orb. The large arrow of the left panel fourteen years, adapting them to his latest concerns, recedes in dark green, but neon red flashes out from compoundingthem with new possibilities, but always the device circle. Much of the depth and layering mindful of the history being traced in the copper—

16

Fig. 16. Working proof for Untitled. 1991-92. Lift-ground aquatint, a history not visible anywhere else in the complex, soft-groundetching, spit bite, and drypoint with paint additions,sheet: provocative,and challengingwork of this master artist 3A" 42Vi x 77 (107.3 x 197.5cm). Collection the artist and printmaker. An exciting footnote to the story of the Land's End apparent in the black edition, however,is obscured. plates is in progress. In 1992, Johns overpainted The reflected arm in the central panel is barely visible, a proof from the 1991 edition with white acrylic and the intriguing spatial planes are compressed.The (fig. 16). He had usedthis processof "whiting out" in overall range of tonality, pattern, and texture is also previous working proofs for black etchings to experi 28 subduedby the color. ment with areas to be burnishedout in later states. This proof showsa more austere, streamlined version 2. Occasionally,a working proof is annotated shortly after it is of the three panels.Most of the heavyblack areas have created"if it hasserved its purposein the working procedureand I am sure that I wish to keep it." (Johns in interview with the author,August been painted over and their textures concealed.The 20, 1996.) velvety surface of the black aquatint is replaced with 3. Johnsquoted in Joseph E. Young,"Jasper Johns:An Appraisal," the brushwork of the more matte acrylic paint. Johns Art International 13 (September1969), pp. 50-56. isolated the words "RED," "YELLOW,"and "BLUE" in 4. Johns bound ninety-six proofs for the 0-9 portfolios into two each panel and emphasizedthe vertical elements— volumes to underscore the process that went into their innovative production. the arrow in the left panel and the arms of the center 5. Johns in interview with the author,August 20,1996. and right panels.The white circles in the center sec 6. Johns in interview with the author, November6,1990. tion extend left and right, blurring the divisions 7. The fingerprint on the lower right of the base matchesJohns's 2 9 29 between the panels. The enormous image appears thumb imprint on the sculpture,indicating its handmadestatus. tighter, more unified, and grander than any of its 8. SeeWendy Weitman, "Jasper Johns:Ale Cansand Art," Studies in Modern Art 1 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1991), previousincarnations. pp. 39-65. Although no further developmentof this print exists 9. Independently,each panel is in disequilibrium, with its compo at the time of this writing, in August of 19%, Johns nent elements—hatches, stones, or bars—veering off in different was shown this unannotated proof and asked why he directions, but the lack of central focus in each panel helpsto unify the had embarkedon this ambitious work a year after the work as a whole. 10. Johnsoften explores new themes in his paintingswhile analyz etching was completed. Had he, in 1992, beencontem ing and dissectingolder ones in his prints. plating another edition, a further reflection of Land's 11. See Sketch for Untitled I and Sketch for Untitled II (both End? Johns then annotated the piece "Working proof 1974) and Castsfrom Untitled (1974; ULAE130-45). Each body cast with acrylic additions" and revealedthat he would now was editioned in a different color as well as in black. haveto return to these plates for this annotation to be 12.Tuscheis the liquid medium used for drawing and painting on lithographic stonesor plates. correct.Thus,the successionof imagesthat beganwith 13. The fragmented body part has been a recurrent motif in a painting in 1963 continues.Johns's contemplation of Johns'sart sincethe mid-1950s,and is seenin suchas works as Target this may engenderanother printed rendering,and with with Plaster Casts(1955). it a new successionof accompanyingmemories. 14. The fewest number of working proofs exist for the screen- prints. Hiroshi Kawanishi of Simca Print Artists, Inc., the workshop where Johns has made most of his screenprints,suggested that the WendyWeitman easeand speedwith which changescan be made in this medium may AssociateCurator account for the lack of proofs with hand additions. Numeroustrial Departmentof Prints and Illustrated proofs do exist for Usuyuki(1981). 15. See Richard Field, "The Making of Foirades/Fizzies," in Foirades/Fizzles: Echo and Allusion in the Art of Jasper Johns (Los Notes Angeles: UCLA,Wight , 1987), pp. 99-126. Author's note: In writing this article, I have relied on the important 16. Johnsquoted in Geelhaar,pp. 37-38. scholarshipin Christian Geelhaar'scatalogue Jasper Johns: Working 17. Johns often prints color and black versions of his editions, Proofs (Basel: Kunstmuseum,1980). ULAE numbersaccompany titles although the color version usuallyprecedes the black. of prints not illustrated and correspondto numbers in The Prints of 18.The semicircle with a ruler as its radius, referred to as "device Jasper Johns: 1960-1993: A Catalogue Raisonne(West Islip, New circle" after a 1959 painting, is meant to imply that the ruler theoreti York: Universal Limited Art Editions, 1994). cally scrapedthe arc on the surface. 19. The reflected arms were first seen in the painting Diver 1. Quotedin DavidSylvester, Jasper Johns Drawings! London: (1962). Council of Great Britain, 1974), p. 18. 20. Becausethe plates for his 1982 prints were in Paris and Johns was in New York, he worked with New York printer Maurice Payne in I am grateful to James Meyer and SarahTaggart in Jasper Johns'sstu 1981 on a set of smaller images(ULAE 217, 221-23), printed on indi dio for their generosityof time and knowledgein the realization of this vidual sheetsas well as together on one sheet,to be usedas color tests exhibition. Bill Goldston,director of Universal Limited Art Editions, for the Paris edition. provided crucial historical and technical details for which I am most 21. Untitled (Red, Yellow, Blue) (1984). appreciative.I am extremely thankful to Nelson Blitz, Jr., and Cather 22.The central "yellow" panel differs the most becausethe print's ine Woodard,and to Maria R. Celis-Wirth, who have loaned their art linear backgroundis virtually impossibleto emulate in paint. Instead, works so the public may enjoy them in this context. Johns has painted the backgroundin a pale violet, yellow's comple Without the cooperation of the artist, an exhibition about the mentary reflection. creative processwould be unthinkable.I owe the greatest debt of grat 23. The painted version hung in the artist's home in Saint Martin itude to Jasper Johns for allowing me the privilege of studying his for many years. On a visit to Saint Martin, architect Philip Johnson, processin printmaking. —W.W. who was designingfurniture for the house,moved the three canvases closer together, proposing an even closer installation. Johns main tained this configuration in the 1991 three-panel print. (Johns in This booklet is made possible by grants from The interview with the author,August 21,1996.) ContemporaryArts Council and The Junior Associates 24. BecauseAldo Crommelynckdid not havea presslarge enough of The Museum of Modern Art, The Associates of to print all three plates together,Johns took them to UniversalLimited Art Editions. (Johns in interview with the author, August 24, 1996.) the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books, and 25. These effects appear in his paintings of this period as well, Arthur and SusanFleischer, Jr. suchas Untitled!,after Holbein; 1990). 26. This extensive set of trial proofs is unusual even for Johns. This exhibition, organized by The Museumof Modern They were done in preparation for a still unrealizedproject. Art, NewYork, was sponsoredby Philip Morris Compa 27. If this print is rotated ninety degrees it strikingly resembles his other compositionsof red, yellow, and blue horizontal bands,such nies, Inc. Additional support was provided by the as Periscope(1963). National Endowment for . Support in Dallas 28. Working proofs for Foirades/Fizzlesand The Seasons(1989; was providedby Mr. and Mrs. William C.Ward. ULAE247) show extensiveuse of white acrylic paint. 29. Johns useda similar medium to similar effect in the working proof with paint, ink, and graphite additions for The Seasonsto blur Works of art © 1996 Jasper Johns/LicensedbyVAGA, New York, N.Y. the distinctions betweenthe four plates. Brochure© 1996 The Museumof ModernArt, NewYork

DMA Dallas Museum of Art Jasper Johns: Processand Printmaking January 25 - March 29,1998