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Numbers.
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Description
Larger Image
Larger image may be viewed by UofL faculty, staff, and students only (log-in required using ULink username/password) at:
http://echo.louisville.edu/login?url=http://vrc-web.louisville.edu/Jpegs/820/827-23.jpg
Title
Numbers
.
Creator
Johns, Jasper (American painter, sculptor, and printmaker, born 1930)
Date
1966
Cultural Context
American
North American
Style/Period
Modern (styles and periods)
Neo-Dada
Pop (fine arts styles)
Theme
Drawings (visual works)
Numbers
Numerals
Ambiguity
Sequences
Subject
Drawings
Numerals
Description
"
Johns
used
letters
or
numbers
as a
means
of
reintroducing
the
signifiers
of a
collective
sign
system
into a
Modernist
'field'
previously
answerable
to
subjective
judgments
of
taste
. The
textures
in his
drawings
in
particular
are
subtly
modulated
. In this
example
he has
overlayed
a
metallic
powder
wash
over
a
graphite
wash
to
produce
a
hint
of
color.
"
(Caption
,
p.58)
; "
Johns's
indeterminate
position
with
respect
to the
imposition
of
aesthetic
or
social
readings
from the
outside
has been
shown
by the
art
historian
Moira
Roth
to
arise
from an
'aesthetics
of
indifference'
uniting
Johns
,
[Robert]
Rauschenberg
, and
John
Cage
.
Unlike
Abstract
Expressionists
such
as
[Barnett]
Newman
and
[Robert]
Motherwell
, these
artists'
fascination
with
[Marcel]
Duchamp's
dandyism
predisposed
them to
avoid
overt
political
alignments
. The
sheer
ambiguity
cultivated
by
Johns
in this
respect
is
exemplified
by a
series
of
works
from the
late
1950s
onward
in
which
innocuous
sequences
of
numbers
were
put
through
a
series
of
painted
and
drawn
variations
. The
sequences
were
stepped
such
that they
read
horizontally
,
diagonally
, and
often
vertically
. They
thus
replaced
the
arbitrary
subjectivity
embodied
in the
Abstract
Expressionist
painted
surface
with a
self-evidently
'logical'
means
of
getting
from
one
side
of the
pictorial
field
to the
other
. With
such
a
system
in
place
,
Johns
paradoxically
freed
himself
to
work
around
the
numbers
,
courting
the
picture
surface
as
devotedly
as
[Willem]
de
Kooning
.
Roth
emphasizes
,
however
, that
one
could
easily
see
the
numbers
as
obliquely
keyed
to
McCarthyism
.
Numerical
sequences
often
acquired
occult
significance
in the
trials
for
spying
,
where
'codes
were
constantly
on the
verge
of
being
cracked'
.
It
becomes
clear
that the
numbers
resist
being
counted
,
so
to
speak
, on
either
interpretative
side
. They
work
, as
Fred
Orton
has
said
of
Flag
[1954-5]
,
precisely
'in
the
space
of
difference'
,
failing
to
confirm
either
one
reading
or
another.
"
(Excerpt
,
pp.60-61)
Material
Metallic powder and graphite wash on polyester fabric
Cloth
Polyester
Graphite (mineral)
Powder
Wash (coating)
Technique
Drawing (image-making)
Work Type
Drawings
Repository
National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC)
Source
Hopkins, David. After Modern Art: 1945-2000. Oxford History of Art. Oxford; New York: Oxford UP, 2000. (p.59, fig.29)
Rights
Photograph reproduced in Hopkins courtesy: National Gallery of Art, Washington. Gift of Leo Castelli in memory of Tony Castelli. Photo Dean Beasom. © Jasper Johns/VAGA, New York/DACS, London, 2000. (1981.82.1/DR)
Digital Publisher
University of Louisville Department of Fine Arts/Allen R. Hite Art Institute Visual Resources Center
Format
image/jpeg
Digital File Name
VRC
827-23.jpg
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