Untitled 2001

This untitled print by Jasper Johns is all in blue, like a faded memory or a dreamscape rendered through etching. I can almost see Johns working on the plate, pressing down, scratching, wiping away, each mark a decision, a revision, a new beginning. The surface is alive with texture, a tapestry of tiny lines, almost like handwriting. I wonder what was going through his head as he made it? What was he thinking when he put those vertical stripes on the left, next to an image of a galaxy? And that photo of three women, like ghosts. The images are disparate but united by the same blue hue, like they're all part of one big puzzle. Johns is always playing with ideas of representation and reality, and here he's like a magician pulling ideas out of thin air. He invites us to look, to question, and to see the world in a new light. He’s in conversation with artists who came before him and those yet to come, a reminder that art is a dialogue across time.