Untitled (Red) [1st state] 1982

Jasper Johns made this print, Untitled (Red) in the whatchamacallit state, using lithography. It's a dance of black ink, swirling and pooling, a world away from a simple rendering of the colours red, yellow and blue. There's a real physicality to how Johns has worked with lithography here. See how the ink sits on the surface, sometimes thick and juicy, other times scraped back, almost translucent? It feels like he's wrestling with the medium, coaxing it into these wild shapes and textures. Look closely at the bottom left, at that vortex of strokes. It's like a record spinning, a blur of motion captured in solid form. It reminds me of Cy Twombly's work, but Johns is holding back somehow, resisting the urge to let loose completely. Johns is talking about how we see, and how we name what we see, and whether those two things can ever truly line up. It is a game, an illusion, a painting.