Untitled [trial proof]
2000
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
linocut in blue and black on wove paper [trial proof]
Dimensions
image: 10.16 × 12.7 cm (4 × 5 in.) sheet (irregular): 21.91 × 26.35 cm (8 5/8 × 10 3/8 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
2010.116.612
Art Historical Context
Jasper Johns, a figure in post-war American art, is renowned for his innovative prints and paintings that challenge perceptions of everyday symbols like flags and numbers. This *Untitled [trial proof]* from 2000 exemplifies his late-career experimentation in printmaking. Created as a linocut relief printing technique where a linoleum block is carved to leave raised ink-bearing surfaces—in blue and black on wove paper, the modest image measures just 4 × 5 inches. The irregular sheet size hints at the hands-on, iterative process typical of an artist's proof. Trial proofs like this one are fasci...
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...