Figure 6 [trial proof]
1969
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
lithograph in black on Arjomari wove paper [trial proof]
Dimensions
sheet: 96.84 × 75.25 cm (38 1/8 × 29 5/8 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
2005.153.37
Art Historical Context
Jasper Johns, a pivotal figure in American Pop Art and Neo-Dada movements, created *Figure 6 [trial proof]* in 1969. Renowned for transforming everyday symbols like flags, targets, and numbers into profound meditations on perception and representation, Johns here employs lithography—a printmaking technique invented in the late 18th century that on the repulsion of oil and water to transfer intricate designs from stone or metal plates onto paper. This black-on-Arjomari wove paper lithograph exemplifies his innovative approach to serial imagery, where numerals morph into ambiguous, humanoid form...
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...