Untitled 2000

This untitled print was made by Jasper Johns, and looking at the copper and aquatint marks, I imagine him shuffling around the studio, deep in thought. He’s trying to bring together an image of, well, so many things! I spy a formal family photograph, a vortex, even a harlequin pattern. I feel a certain resonance with Johns. The way he seems to collage different images together reminds me of how I work. The translucency here builds up and the different marks add to a layered effect, a bit like a palimpsest. The image feels connected to art history and to the history of printmaking. There’s an alchemy to his practice. In a way, artists are always in conversation with each other, transmuting images through time. They allow us to experience art in new and inventive ways. And with each mark they leave, they invite us to partake in the pleasure of uncertainty.