Untitled [element in black proof]
2001
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
aquatint in black on wove paper [element in black proof]
Dimensions
plate: 56.2 x 78.74 cm (22 1/8 x 31 in.) sheet: 46.36 x 68.58 cm (18 1/4 x 27 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
2010.116.441
Art Historical Context
Jasper Johns, a pivotal figure in postwar American art, created *Untitled [element in black]* in 2001, a striking aquatint print in black on wove paper. Born in 1930, Johns is renowned for his Neo-Dada and Pop Art, famously elevating everyday symbols like flags and targets into profound meditations on perception and representation. This late-career work exemplifies his enduring fascination with process and ambiguity, produced when he was in his seventies and exploring printmaking's technical possibilities. Aquatint, an intaglio technique Johns mastered, allows for rich tonal gradations throug...
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...