Jasper Johns’s lithographs from the 1970s demonstrate his fascination with repetition, mark-making, and the mechanics of printmaking itself. These works often incorporate crosshatching patterns, numerals, and fragmented imagery which challenge viewers to distinguish between accident and intention. Working closely with master printers at studios like Gemini G.E.L. and ULAE, Johns exploited the lithographic stone’s capacity for subtle tonal gradations and overlapping colors, building images through an accumulation of gesture and erasure. These prints contributed to a moment when American artists were elevating printmaking to a primary site of experimentation, with Johns leading this transformation through technical innovation and a litany of concepts that challenged traditional notions of authorship. Johns once observed, “Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else to it,” a process clearly visible in these lithographs where familiar symbols—a chair or map—become unfamiliar through fragmentation, reversal, and layered reworking. What sometimes appears abstract at first resolves into recognizable forms, while seemingly straightforward images dissolve into ambiguous marks, suggesting that seeing is never as simple or direct as we assume.

1971
8-color lithograph, 12/69 A.P.
36" h x 30" w

Artwork donated by David Gensburg
75 0288