Jasper Johns (American, born 1930). Numbers in Color, 1958–59. Encaustic and newspaper on canvas, 66 1/2 x 49 1/2 inches (168.9 x 125.7 cm). Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; Gift of Seymour H. Knox, Jr., 1959 (K1959:10). © Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Jasper Johns’s earliest paintings depict common, easily recognizable images like targets and flags—emblems we do not generally study in great detail. We are, however, expected to stop and look at paintings. Johns employed this paradox to force viewers to rethink the meaning of not only art but also what it represents. In many of his compositions, he included familiar symbols and systems that are used to create order in the world, such as numbers and maps. Numerals—from zip codes to social security identification—organize our lives in a variety of ways but are, in fact, only ideas; they are not tangible things. For Johns, ubiquitous subjects allowed him to focus on other aspects of the work, such as medium and surface. To create Numbers in Color he used encaustic, an ancient painting method in which pigment is dissolved in hot wax. Furthermore, Johns embedded pieces of newspaper in the encaustic. While these fragments add depth and texture, they also refer to concrete objects and events in the real world. Yet, the text has been rendered illegible.
Related Content
-
-
exhibition
Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940–1976
–Learn MoreLearn More -
exhibition
The Long Curve: 150 Years of Visionary Collecting at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery
–Learn MoreLearn More -
-
-
-
-
