SPECIAL EXHIBITION LABELS
JASPER JOHNS
Early Prints from the Collections of
Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation
January 17 – May 19, 2014
Curated by Jennifer Farrell, Curator of Exhibitions and Contemporary Art
Thomas H. Bayly Building
155 Rugby Road, PO Box 400119
Charlottesville, VA, 22904-4119
www.virginia.edu/artmuseum
Introduction
Since the mid-1950s, Jasper Johns (b. 1930) has fundamentally challenged ideas
about what art can be by focusing on everyday icons and emblems, or what the artist
famously referred to as “things the mind already knows.” While perhaps best known
for his paintings, Johns is also widely respected for his graphic work, which has
occupied a central role in his oeuvre for over five decades. Johns’ prints not only
show a mastery of the various media with which he has engaged, but also a profound
sense of experimentation. Printmaking has allowed him to explore methods for
interpreting icons, emblems, and objects—such as numbers, letters, maps, targets, and
ale cans—while also expanding the possibilities for the medium. Several of his prints
make reference to the artist’s work in other media, yet they are not mere copies or
reproductions. Rather, Johns addresses modes of perception and, by extension, ways
of knowing. The processes of printmaking allow him to explore the impact of various
methods and techniques on the image—what he has referred to as “differences and
samenesses”—made visible in each context. Prints have also influenced Johns’ work
in other media; in the early 1960s he began incorporating printmaking techniques
and materials in his paintings and, by 1971, images that had first appeared in prints.
In this way, Johns’ practice reflects a note found in one of his early sketchbooks: “One
thing used one way/Another thing used another way/One thing used different ways
at different times.”
This exhibition comprises selections from the Jordan D. Schnitzer Family Foundation,
one of the most respected and comprehensive private collections of contemporary
prints. Beginning with a rare monoprint from 1954, the exhibition showcases
over twenty years of Johns’ work. In addition to illustrating his technical skill, the
exhibition shows the quotidian and often enigmatic motifs that are central to his art.
From the almost deadpan literalness in the series 0–9 (1963) to the complex layers of
objects and meanings in Decoy II (1973), the exhibition reveals the skillful and poetic
ways in which Johns has both consistently advanced printmaking and engaged links
between seeing and knowing.
The Fralin Museum of Art’s programming is made possible
by the generous support of The Joseph and Robert Cornell
Memorial Foundation.
The exhibition is made possible through the generous support
of the Suzanne Foley Endowment Fund, the Jordan Schnitzer
Family Foundation, albemarle Magazine, and Ivy Publications LLC’s
Charlottesville Welcome Book.
Jasper Johns | 2014
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Labels
Untitled, 1954
Monoprint
Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer, 2006.420
Lead Reliefs: Numerals, 0 through 9, 1969 (published), 1970 (signed)
Lead relief with polystyrene and wood backing in an aluminum frame, edition 13/60
Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer, 2005.277
0–9, 1963
Portfolio of ten lithographs, edition B/C 3/3 AP
Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer, 2006.107a – 107j
In 1960, Johns received a lithographic stone from the publisher Tatyana Grosman who hoped to
entice him to make prints at Universal Limited Art Editions (ULAE), her publishing company.
Johns, new to the medium, drew a zero on the stone, as it was symmetrical, easy to make, and
did not require that the image be drawn in reverse. He later added the frieze of numbers above
the larger figure, a decision that inspired the series 0–9, one of the most technically challenging
works made in recent lithography. Because Johns printed the lithographs on the same stone,
reworking them for each large numeral, elements from previously printed numbers remain faintly
visible throughout the progression. The stenciled form and the predetermined order found in
both the frieze and the large numbers create a sense of continuity within the series, yet Johns
also endowed each large number with distinct visual qualities to distinguish each form and counter
the banality associated with the subject matter and the stenciled letters. By rendering numbers
as abstract symbols, even arrangements of color and form, Johns challenged the more functional
associations evoked by them and, by connection, systems of knowledge.
Johns created three editions—“A/C,” “B/C,” and “C/C”— of the 0–9 prints. Prints in
“A/C” were made with black ink on handmade ivory paper, “B/C” with gray ink on handmade
unbleached paper, and “C/C” with colored ink on handmade white paper. Johns originally
conceived of the series in tones of gray, such as the prints on display in this gallery. His link to
the combination of gray ink and unbleached paper, which would approximate the color of the
lithographic stone on which he worked, is shown through the early date—“60”—inscribed on a
print from the “B/C” edition, while prints in other editions were signed “63.”
Jasper Johns | 2014
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Numbers, 1967
Lithograph, edition 30/35
Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer, 2006.109
Gray Alphabets, 1968
Lithograph, edition 27/59
Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, 2000.44
The 1956 painting of the same title was Johns’ first engagement with the alphabet and
letter themes, as well as the first time he used the word gray—a reoccurring color in his
oeuvre—as part of a title. Made at the studio of Gemini G.E.L. in Los Angeles with master
printer Kenneth Tyler, Gray Alphabets required four matrices and, at the time, was the
largest and one of the most ambitious lithographs Johns had created. Johns was deeply
involved with its production and mixed the inks himself in order to capture tones and
the sense of luminosity of the graphite wash used in the 1960 drawing of the same title
and theme. In Gray Alphabets, Johns expertly plays off the tension between the all-over
composition and the discrete forms of the blocks and the letters each contains. As with
0–9, each letter is simultaneously reflective of an established order—an effect amplified by
the grid structure— and unique due to its variations of gray tones and marks.
No, 1969
Lithograph with embossing and lead object, edition 30/80
Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer, 2012.160
Jasper Johns | 2014
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Coat Hanger II (Variation), 1960
Lithograph with embossing, edition AP 1/3
Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer, 2006.85
Coat Hanger II reflects Johns’ desire to engage objects from everyday life in a deadpan,
almost literal sense. The artist explored the motif of the rather humble wire coat hanger in
a 1958 conté crayon drawing, a 1959 painting, and Coat Hanger I, a print made earlier in
1960. Johns likely used the same stone for Coat Hanger I and II, and, although the image
in Coat Hanger I is less visible due to the darker palette and heavy marks, the composition
is consistent in both prints. Coat Hanger II, however, has a greater trompe l’oeil effect,
enhanced by the stark contrast between the hanger and the background, which also closely
links it to the painting that incorporates an actual hanger. The art historian Leo Steinberg
noted that Johns’ use of quotidian objects such as rulers, ale cans, and coat hangers not only
makes reference to Dada works by artists such as Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, but also
captures “feelings of emptiness, loss, abandonment or dehumanization in this common object.”
Painting with Two Balls, 1971
Screenprint, edition PP 3/4
Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, 2000.66
Johns has explored the “Painting with Two Balls” theme in numerous formats: a 1960
encaustic and collage on canvas; a charcoal, pastel, and pencil drawing; lithographs
(including his first multicolored print and first lithograph made with two stones in 1962);
and screenprints. In this print, Johns evoked the painting through the title, which is shown
in stenciled letters in the work itself, and the broad swaths of primary colors, split surface,
and two small balls that appear to have created this rupture. Rather than reproduce the
painting, however, Johns’ graphic works allow him to create a kind of tension between
mediums, contrasting reality and illusion and both stressing and undermining properties
specific to each form. In Painting with Two Balls, for instance, Johns works against the sharp
edges and smooth, seamless color associated with screenprints. Drips, splotches, and
stains refer to the uneven pigment of the painting, while layered scribbles connote gestural
brushstrokes frozen in encaustic as well as elements of drawing.
Technics and Creativity: Target, 1971
Offset lithograph and collage, edition of 22,500
Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, 2003.53
Jasper Johns | 2014
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Target with Four Faces, 1968
Screenprint, edition 89/100
Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer, 2003.204
The target, distinguished by being both image and object, is perhaps the motif most
associated with Johns. The form—five concentric circles against a flat support—made
its debut in Johns’ art in the spring of 1955 with the encaustic and collage work Target
with Plaster Casts. Johns has subsequently engaged the image over fifty times in various
configurations and media, including over thirteen different prints reflecting a variety of
techniques. In 1960, Johns’ first published lithograph was of a target, as was his first etching
in 1967. Target with Four Faces, his first screenprint, makes reference to the 1955 painting
of the same name. Johns has spoken about his desire to challenge the processes and
characteristics of various forms of printmaking to “achieve a different kind of complexity.”
In this work, for instance, Johns incorporated illusionistic effects of drawn lines and
panels of simulated wood grain. In the related work Technics and Creativity: Target, Johns
humorously makes reference to both the ubiquity of targets and the seemingly simplistic
construction of his celebrated paintings, drawings, and prints of them.
Pinion, 1966
Lithograph, edition 13/36
Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer, 2006.108
Decoy II, 1973
Lithograph, edition PP 2/2
Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer, 1996.15
In 1971, Johns made Decoy, one of his most complex early works on paper and the only
print to inspire a painting, a reversal of his practice of creating a composition first in
painting or sculpture, then in print. Decoy II responds to both the earlier lithograph and the
painting made later that year. Decoy and Decoy II can be viewed as retrospectives as Johns
incorporated images and icons engaged in earlier paintings, sculptures, and prints, including
the Ballantine ale cans featured in the 1960 sculpture Painted Bronze and the 1975 print
Ale Cans, shown in this exhibition. Names of colors, which began appearing in Johns’ works
in 1959, operate more conceptually than as agents identifying what one experiences
visually. Color is also evoked by the spectrum that runs along the top section of the print.
A fragmented leg suspended in the upper corner, drawn from Watchman, a 1964 painting
with objects, adds an uncanny element to the composition.
Jasper Johns | 2014
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Ale Cans (ULAE 154), 1975
Lithograph, edition RTP
Collection of Harsch Investment Property Management, 2009.37
Like many of his contemporaries, Johns was profoundly influenced by the artist Marcel
Duchamp. Several of Johns’ works make reference to Duchamp’s concept of the
Readymade, that is an ordinary, mass-produced object that the artist selected, removed
from its functional role, and declared to be art. One of Johns’ earliest and most celebrated
works to feature such a quotidian subject was Painted Bronze, his 1960 sculpture of two
cans of Ballantine ale. The ale cans, one of Johns’ most recognizable motifs, reappear
throughout his work in a variety of media and over several decades, and, in each evocation,
can be read as making reference to both the sculpture and actual cans of Ballantine ale.
The image of the ale cans also reappears in Decoy II, featured in this exhibition, where it is
in dialogue with words and images derived from earlier paintings and prints.
Two Maps I, 1966
Lithograph, edition 24/30
Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, 2000.45
The Critic Sees, from the portfolio Ten from Leo Castelli, 1967
Screenprint and embossing with collage and acetate, edition 110/200
Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer, 2006.384b
The Critic Sees was based on a 1964 sculpture in which images of mouths replace the eyes
behind the glasses, thus conflating speaking and seeing while rendering vision—implied
by the glasses—impossible. The Critic Smiles is one of only six Lead Relief pieces Johns
made between 1969 and 1970 (another such work, 0–9, is also in this exhibition). In the
work, a toothbrush is presented on a small shelf, below which the title of the work and
the artist’s signature appears. Instead of bristles, however, there are glistening gold teeth,
which give the work elements of both humor—the gold teeth imply the replacement of the
natural ones and, by connection, the failure of the toothbrush—and menace. As with The
Critic Sees, the titles evoke an absent body while also contradicting what is shown in the
work. Both The Critic Smiles and The Critic Sees have been read as puns specific to the art
world, yet the term “critic” also functions in a broader sense, applicable to the relationship
between the artist and anyone who encounters his or her work.
Jasper Johns | 2014
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Lead Reliefs: The Critic Smiles, 1969
Embossed lead relief with gold and tin foil additions, edition 11/60
Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer, 2006.374
Souvenir, 1970
Lithograph, edition 4/50
Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer, 1998.41
Johns had earlier incorporated traces of his body in his art (for example, the imprints of
his hands, feet, and knees in Pinion), yet Souvenir was the first piece to show such a direct
and recognizable representation of his features. Because of this, some have read the
print and the two paintings Johns made with the same title and theme in 1964 as selfportraits, particularly as they also contain allusions to his work as an artist, his frequent use
of stenciled letters, and his engagement with everyday objects such as the flashlight. Yet
Souvenir is more complex than a simple self-portrait. Johns plays off multiple meanings
evoked by the title, which makes reference to both a literal souvenir—the ceramic plate
purchased in a tourist shop in Japan—and the act of remembering that such objects are
believed to prompt. These associations are heighted by the handwritten word “souvenir”
scrawled across the verso of the blank canvas, which functions simultaneously as title,
description, and command.
Jasper Johns | 2014
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