Numbers from 1st Etchings, 2nd State
1967-1969
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
etching and open-bite in black on Auvergne paper
Dimensions
sheet: 65.4 x 50.2 cm (25 3/4 x 19 3/4 in.)
Classification
Portfolio
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of the Woodward Foundation, Washington, D.C.
Accession Number
1976.56.84.6
Art Historical Context
In the late 1960s, Jasper Johns, a pivotal figure in American Pop Art and Neo-Dada, created *Numbers from 1stchings, 2nd State* (1967–1969) as part of his innovative printmaking explorations. Johns first gained fame in the 1950s for of everyday symbols like flags and numbers, challenging the dominance of Abstract Expressionism by blurring the line between image and object. This etching revisits his iconic "Numbers" motif—zero through nine overlapping in a dense grid—transforming it into a precise, reproducible form that invites viewers to ponder perception, memory, and the mechanics of seeing....
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...