Face with Watch [trial proof]
1996
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
color etching and aquatint on wove paper [trial proof]
Dimensions
plate: 90.81 x 60.33 cm (35 3/4 x 23 3/4 in.) sheet: 108.9 x 76.84 cm (42 7/8 x 30 1/4 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
2010.116.130
Art Historical Context
Jasper Johns, a pivotal figure in post-war American art associated with Neo-Dada and Pop Art, created *Face with Watch [trial proof]* in 1996. This color etching and aquatint wove paper exemplifies Johns' lifelong fascination with perception, memory, and the interplay between image and object. At 90.81 x 60.33 cm (plate size), the work merges a human face with the motif of a watch, ev themes of time, identity, and the mechanical gaze—hallmarks of his iconography that challenge viewers to question representation. As a trial proof, this impression is a rare experimental state, allowing Johns to...
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...