Alphabets [working proof]
1962
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
lithograph in black and gray with red chalk on Rives BFK [working proof]
Dimensions
sheet: 105.41 x 74.93 cm (41 1/2 x 29 1/2 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Patrons' Permanent Fund and Special Friends of the National Gallery of Art
Accession Number
2008.27.1
Art Historical Context
Jasper Johns's *Alphabets [working]* (1962) is a captivating lithograph in black and gray with red chalk on Rives BFK paper, 105.41 x 74.93 cm. As a working proof from the National Gallery of Art's collection—acquired through the Patrons' Permanent and Special Friends—this piece offers a rare glimpse into the artist's iterative process. Johns, a pivotal figure in Pop Art and Neo-Dada, frequently drew from everyday symbols like flags, targets, and alphabets to challenge perceptions of reality and representation. In this proof, Johns meticulously renders the alphabet in a gridded format, blendi...
About the Artist
Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, draftsman, and printmaker whose revolutionary work fundamentally transformed the trajectory of postwar American art. Emerging in the 1950s when Abstract Expressionism dominated the New York art world, Johns introduced a radically different approach by painting familiar, everyday symbols—flags, targets, numbers, and maps—that he des...