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Jasper Johns
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Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns

Usuyuki (ULAE 216)

29 1/2 x 47 1/4 inches
Jasper Johns

Usuyuki
(ULAE 216)

1981
color screenprint on Kurotani Kozo paper
paper: 29 1/2 x 47 1/4 inches
image: 27 x 44 3/4 inches
frame: 30 1/2 x 47 3/4 inches
edition: 85 + 15 AP's, 2 PP's
signed & dated in pencil "J Johns 81" lower right
numbered in pencil lower left.
printed by Kenjiro Nonaka, Hiroshi Kawanishi
co-published by Jasper Johns and Simca Print Artists, Inc.

Literature
Richard Field, The Prints of Jasper Johns 1960-1993: A Catalogue Raisonne, ULAE, New York, 1994, Catalogue Reference ULAE 216, n.p., another impression reproduced full-page color.

Dana Miller, Adam D. Weinberg & Donna De Salvo, Legacy: The Emily Fisher Landau Collection, Whitney Museum of American Art, 2011, another impression reproduced page 333.

Roberta Bernstein, Jasper Johns Usuyuki, Fergus McCaffrey, Tokyo, 2019, plate 6, pg 31, another impression reproduced full-page color.

Carlos Basualdo, Scott Rothkopf, Jasper Johns Mind/Mirror, The Whitney Museum of American Art, 2021, another impression reproduced plate 30, pgs. 115, 127.

Exhibited
Jasper Johns Mind/Mirror, The Whitney Museum of American Art and Philadelphia Museum of Art

Selected Museum Collections
The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
The Broad Collection, Los Angeles
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Jasper Johns began creating his iconic Usuyuki series in 1979. Over two and half decades, Jasper Johns created approximately twenty-four artworks, including four paintings, fifteen drawings and five limited editions which incuded three color screenprints and two color lithographs. Each Usuyuki artwork features a crosshatching motif in a variety of designs, colors and formats.

JASPER JOHNS USUYUKI

Jasper Johns began creating his iconic Usuyuki series in 1979. Over two and half decades, Jasper Johns created approximately twenty-four artworks, including four paintings, fifteen drawings and five limited editions which incuded three color screenprints and two color lithographs. Each Usuyuki artwork features a crosshatching motif in a variety of designs, colors and formats. The Japanese word "usuyuki" translates to "thin or light snow" referring to the transience of weather; metaphorically, the term implies a sudden arrival and, subsequently, an unexpected departure.

Each of the three color screenprints in the Usyuki series were co-published by the Artist with Simca Print Artists, Inc, founded by master printers Hiroshi Kawanishi, Kenjiro Nonaka, and Takashi Shimada; two of these screenprints were horizontal and one vertical.

Jasper Johns Usuyuki paintings and prints reproduced pages 126-127 in
Jasper Johns Mind/Mirror
Jasper Johns Usuyuki paintings and prints reproduced pages 126-127 in Jasper Johns Mind/Mirror, exhibition catalogue published by Whitney Museum of American Art

With Usuyuki (ULAE 216), 1981, Johns skillfully created a complex color screeenprint by layering the entire surface with opaque and translucent strips in a grid pattern. Jasper Johns Usuyuki (ULAE 216), 1981, is one of two large horizontal, complix color screenprints created by the Artist using twelve screens to create subtle gradations of color and a collage like layered effect using newsprint.

Other impressions of this masterful screenprint are in numerous prestigious museum collections, including The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; The Broad Collection, Los Angeles; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; The Museum of Fine . Arts, Houston. 

An impression of Jasper Johns Usuyuki (ULAE 216), 1981 was included in "Jasper Johns and Edvard Munch: Love, Loss and the Cycle of Life" at the Munch Museum, Oslo, June 18, 2016 - September 25, 2016 and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, November 19, 2017- February 20, 2017. Another impression of Jasper Johns Usuyuki, 1981, was also included in the 2011 exhibition of The Emily Fisher Landau Collection at The Whitney Museum of American Art which the late Ms. Landau generously donated to the museum.m.

An impression of Jasper Johns Usuyuki (ULAE 216), 1981 was also included in "Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror", a seven decade retrospective that opened simultaneously at The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Simultaneously presented at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and The Whitney Museum of American Art, Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror, which was the Artist’s most comprehensive exhibition to date, larger than either of Johns' landmark retrospectives at The Museum of Modern Art and The Whitney Museum of Art curated by the late Michael Crichton. Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror was a stunning array of over 500 Jasper Johns paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints as well as many lesser-known and recent works, many from the Artist's personal collecion and many shown for the first time ever.

Another impression of Jasper Johns Usuyuki (ULAE 216), 1981 color screenrint achieved $107,000 Christie's New York, April 19, 2023.

Jasper Johns Usuyuki (ULAE 216), 1981 is one of several museum quality limited edition prints offered for sale by Joseph K. Levene Fine Art, Ltd.