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Jasper Johns
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Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns

Untitled

9 7/8 x 10 2/8 inches
Jasper Johns

Untitled (ULAE 186/S13), 1977

screenprint in colors on Patapar printing parchment catalogue cover
image: 9 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches
overall: 9 7/8 x 10 2/8 inches
frame: 15 5/8 x 15 5/8 inches
edition: 3000
unsigned as published
published by Brooke Alexander Editions, 1977
printed by Simca Print Artists, Inc., New York

Literature
Richard Field, The Prints of Jasper Johns 1960-1993: A Catalogue Raisonne, ULAE, New York, 1994, Catalogue Reference ULAE 186/S13, n.p., another impression reproduced.

Exhibitions
Brooke Alexander, inc., New York, Jasper Johns Screenprints, November 15, 1977-January 17, 1978, another impression exhibited.
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los AngelesRolywholyover: A Circus for Museum by John Cage, September 12, 1993 – November 28, 1993, another impression exhibited.
The Menil Collection, Houston, Rolywholyover: A Circus for Museum by John Cage, January 14 - April 3, 1994, another impression exhibited.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Rolywholyover: A Circus for Museum by John Cage, April 23–August 7, 1994, another impression exhibited.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Rolywholyover: A Circus for Museum by John Cage, June 4-July 30, 1995, another impression exhibited.
Art Tower Mito Contemporary Art Center, Tokyo, Rolywholyover: A Circus for Museum by John Cage, November 3, 1994 - February 26, 1995, another impression exhibited.

Selected Museum Collections
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Museum of Modern Art, New York
National Gallery of Art, Australia
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton
San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose
Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge

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Additional Photos
Untitled (ULAE 186/S13), 1977
Full Sheet
Untitled (ULAE 186/S13), 1977
Image Detail
Untitled (ULAE 186/S13), 1977
Book Detail
Untitled (ULAE 186/S13), 1977
Book Detail

Beginning with his 1972 painting Untitled, Jasper Johns developed his motif of crosshatched lines, experimenting with colors, patterns, mirroring and reversals. According to the artist, the inspiration for his crosshatched works came from a pattern he glimpsed on a car that quickly passed him on a highway, "I only saw it for a second, but knew immediately that I was going to use it. It had all the qualities that interest me – literalness, repetitiveness, an obsessive quality, order with dumbness, and the possibility of a complete lack of meaning." Over the next ten years, Johns produced many variations on the crosshatch theme in paintings, drawings and prints.

JASPER JOHNS CROSSHATCH

Beginning with his 1972 painting Untitled, Jasper Johns developed his motif of crosshatched lines, experimenting with colors, patterns, mirroring and reversals. According to the artist, the inspiration for his crosshatched works came from a pattern he glimpsed on a car that quickly passed him on a highway, "I only saw it for a second, but knew immediately that I was going to use it. It had all the qualities that interest me – literalness, repetitiveness, an obsessive quality, order with dumbness, and the possibility of a complete lack of meaning." Over the next ten years, Johns produced many variations on the crosshatch theme in paintings, drawings and prints.

With his Crosshatch/Untitled prints, Johns sought to evoke a. New form, one that is growing and splitting in new visual directions. "The Untitled title has to do with the image of something bursting through its skin, which is what they do. You have all those shells where the back splits and they've emerged. And basically that kind of splitting form is what I tried to suggest." Johns illustrated this splitting by employing lines of primary and secondary colors. In Untitled (ULAE 186 S13) a screenprint from 1977, the lines in the central area are the tertiary colors orange,green and purple.

Throughout his career, Johns experimented with showing the same idea differently, repeating forms and motifs in various media. As evidenced by his work from the 1970s and early 1980s, the crosshatch motif lent itself exceptionally well to this working method. Printmaking allowed Johns to elaborate on his compositional ideas and his printmaking influenced his painting just as much as his paintings influenced his prints. In fact, the use of crosshatching in both prints and paintings is significant. Johns has taken a technique historically used in drawing and printmaking to evoke shade and depth, making it the subject of his work.

This work is from the edition of 3000 printed by Simca Print Artists, Inc., New York and published by Brooke Alexander, Inc., New York as a catalog cover for Jasper Johns Screenprints.

 

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