Leo [sketch (on Mylar)] 1997

Jasper Johns made this sketch on Mylar, which is a kind of plastic film, sometime in the late 20th century. The color palette is pretty spare, mostly the off-white of the Mylar itself, plus some graphite and touches of reddish-brown, so the emphasis is on mark-making. You get a real sense of the artist feeling his way through the image. I see a constellation up top, maybe the "Leo" that's referenced in the title and then, below, are these rudimentary figures. They're like stand-ins, or maybe they're us, looking up at the stars. The figures have this kind of hesitant, searching quality, which I think is really emphasized by the thinness of the lines. Everything feels provisional, like it could be erased or changed at any moment, which gives the piece a real sense of vulnerability. Johns has always been fascinated by how we see and interpret the world, and this sketch feels like a really intimate glimpse into that process. You can see Cy Twombly in this piece, for sure, especially in the scratchy, almost childlike quality of the drawing.