Target (ULAE 147)
34 7/8 x 27 3/8 inchesTarget (ULAE 147)
1974
color screenprint from twenty-seven screens on J.B. Green paper
paper: 34 7/8 x 27 3/8 inches
frame: 35 1/4 x 28 3/4 inches
edition: 70 with 9 AP's
signed & dated "J. Johns ‘74" in pencil lower left
numbered lower right in pencil
with the Simca Print Artists, Inc., blindstamp, lower left
printed by Simca Print Artists, Inc., New York
published by Jasper Johns and Simca Print Artists, Tokyo
© 2024 Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Literature
Richard Field, The Prints of Jasper Johns 1960-1993: A Catalogue Raisonne, ULAE, New York, 1994, Jasper Johns Target, 1974, Catalogue Reference ULAE 147, n.p., another impression reproduced in full-page color.
Riva Castleman Jasper Johns: A Print Retrospective, New York: The Museum of Modern Art; Boston: New York Graphic Society, Books/Little Brown and Company, 1986, pg 96, another impression reproduced in full-page color.
Reba and Dave Williams, American Screenprints from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams, Exhibition catalogue, New York, 1991, no. 1, another impression reproduced in color.
Museum Collections
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Davison Art Center, Middletown
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle
Additional Photos
A master printmaker since 1960, Jasper Johns Target, (ULAE 147), 1974 color screenprint is one of the Artist's most iconic prints; without question, considered an important example from his Target series. Technically, this color screenprint has the similar complexity of Jasper Johns encaustic works on canvas, which have a rich depth or layering. Jasper Johns has mastered the screenprinting technique utilizing 27 color screens, that mimic the layering he achieves in his encaustic paintings.
THE EDURING LEGACY OF JASPER JOHNS TARGET SERIES
A master printmaker since 1960, Jasper Johns Target, (ULAE 147), 1974 color screenprint is one of the Artist's most iconic prints; without question, considered an important example from his Target series. Technically, this color screenprint has the similar complexity of Jasper Johns encaustic works on canvas, which have a rich depth or layering. Jasper Johns has mastered the screenprinting technique utilizing 27 color screens, that mimic the layering he achieves in his encaustic paintings. Absolutely stunning visually, Target, 1974 and is among the most complex print published during his extraordinary six decades of creating limited edition prints. Jasper Johns Target, (ULAE 147), 1974 has been so successfully created, it feels like one of his unique works on paper, right down to the many drips of paint.
The Art Institute of Chicago
Sold by Joseph K. Levene Fine Art, Ltd.
Target is among images that first brought Jasper Johns fame, endlessly reproduced in the half century since he painted them. Jasper Johns Target Four Faces, 1955, now in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, and Jasper Johns Target, 1961, which is now in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, are both painted in encaustic, an ancient tradition requiring heating wax, brushing it on evenly as one would frost a cake. They, have themselves become a form of advertising, a logo for American postwar art. Before Joseph K. Levene established Joseph K. Levene Fine Art, Ltd., he was President/COO, Petersburg Press, Inc. In 1989, Joseph K. Levene had the distinct privilege of selling the aforementioned Target, 1961, encaustic on canvas, to a private collector in Japan, who a decade later sold it to the late Stefan T. Edlis
Renowned Jasper Johns expert Roberta Bernstein, Professor Emeritus of Art History at the University of Albany, State University of New York, the foremost scholar of Jasper Johns art, and author, of several authoritative Jasper Johns monographs, including Jasper Johns: Catalogue Raisonne of Painting and Sculpture remarked upon first viewing Jasper Johns Flag and Target, each masterful encaustic on canvas works: “My trust in my perceptions was shaken up. This happened with the flags and targets that initially looked like the objects themselves and then became something else when looking at their surfaces.”Jasper Johns explained, the imagery derives from “things the mind already knows,” utterly familiar icons such as Flags, Targets, Numbers and Maps. Of those four earliest icons that occupy his work, the Target is Jasper Johns' most abstract image, representing something anonymous and universal, the familiar target continues to appear in Johns' work.
Printmaking had a profound effect on Johns’s artistic career. The variety of techniques allowed the Artist to refine and hone his ideas. Jasper Johns has worked with and continues to work with many of the most esteemed and talented technical printmakers of the 20th century, including Atelier Crommelynck, Petersburg Press, Gemini G.E.L., Universal Limited Art Editions, John Lund, Low Road Studios and Simca Print Artists.
Over the last four decades other impressions of Jasper Johns Target, (ULAE 147), 1974 have been included in numerous museum retrospectives including the landmark 1986 MoMA print exhibition, curated by the legendary Riva Castleman, Jasper Johns: A Print Retrospective.
An impression of Johns Target, 1974 was included in An Art of Changes: Jasper Johns Prints, 1960–2018 exhibit organized by the Walker Art Center, one of 90 prints seen in museums around the country, including:
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: October 12, 2019–January 20, 2020
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis: February 16–September 20, 2020
Grand Rapids Art Museum, Michigan: October 24, 2020–January 24, 2021
Tampa Museum of Art, Florida: April 298–September 5, 2021
Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York: May 1–July 31, 2022
Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror, the 2021-2022 simultaneous Jasper Johns retrospective jointly organized at the Philadelphia Museum and The Whitney Museum of American Art, was a massive exhibition which took place simultaneously in both museums, the largest retrospective exhibition ever devoted to the Artist. From his iconic flags to lesser-known and recent works, the exhibition featured paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints-nearly 500 artworks across the two museums, many of which are from Johns’s personal collection, shown publicly for the first time. Inspired by Jasper Johns’ long-standing fascination with mirroring and doubles, each half of the exhibition acts as a reflection of the other, inviting viewers to look closely to discover the themes, methods, and coded visual language that echo across the both venues.
Recently an impression of Jasper Johns Target, (ULAE 147), 1974, consigned by the late Paul Allen, achieved an auction world record selling for $415,800 at Christie's New York, November 10, 2022. A recognized Jasper Johns authority, Joseph K. Levene Fine, Art, Ltd. has sold numerous impressions of Jasper Johns Target (ULAE 147), 1974 color screenprints to private collectors. Currently Joseph K. Levene Fine Art, Ltd. can offer discriminating collectors who appreciate outstanding condition a museum quality impression of Jasper Johns Target (ULAE 147), 1974 with particularly vibrant colors and no condition issues.
#JasperJohns Simca Target signed, numbered & dated 1974 color screenprint fetches $315,000, including buyer’s premium, doubling low estimate @Phillipsedition, October 19, 2021. https://t.co/HgQKXYnItT pic.twitter.com/YwnZDSQohb
— Joseph K. Levene Fine Art, Ltd. (@JKLFA) October 19, 2021
