Jasper Johns Figure 6 (ULAE 65), 1969 Color Lithograph on Arjomari Paper

Jasper Johns
Figure 6 (ULAE 65), 1969
lithograph in colors, on Arjomari paper
image: 27 ½ x 21 ¼ inches
paper: 38 x 31 inches
frame: 42 x 35 inches
edition: 40 + 12 AP's & 1 PP
signed & dated "J.Johns 1969" in red pencil lower right recto
numbered in pencil lower left recto 
published by Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles, with their blindstamp and inkstamp on  reverse

Condition
Pristine condition, the colors fresh, the margins full. Floated archival blonde wood frame with UV plexiglass. 

Literature
Richard Field, The Prints of Jasper Johns 1960-1993: A Catalogue Raisonne, ULAE, New York, 1994, Catalogue Reference ULAE 65, n.p., another impression reproduced full-page color.

Carlos Basualdo, Scott Rothkopf, Jasper Johns Mind/Mirror, Whitney Museum of American Art, 2021, another impression reproduced plate 46, page 86.

Exhibited
Jasper Johns Mind/Mirror, The Whitney Museum of American Art and Philadelphia Museum of Art, another impression.

Museum Collections
The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
National Gallery of Art, Australia
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Fransisco
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge

About

Since the mid-1950's, Jasper Johns has reworked key motifs—flags, targets, maps, the alphabet and numbers. Johns depicts subjects that "the mind already knows" but overlooks due to constant exposure. Published by Gemini G.E.L., Jasper Johns' color Numeral 6 elevates the number, its form derived from a commercial stencil, to a striking, orange-yellow hued portrait.

Johns’s basic instructions to himself, written in his sketchbook "Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else to it" reveal the overarching logic of his artistic approach. His exploration of numeric figures began in 1955 and continued into the mid-2000’s; it is the subject to which he has returned most often, exploring it in paintings, drawings, sculpture and prints. Jasper Johns has taken advantage of the opportunity offered by printmaking to test multiple options, and pursue different mediums of exploration in his transformation of the numerical object.

For example, the lithographic stones and plates that Jasper Johns used to print his set of 10 Color Numerals, (ULAE 59-68), 1969 had been reworked from those used to produce the set of 10 Black Numerals, (ULAE 44-53), 1968 a series created the previous year at Gemini GEL. Because the regular published edition of Numbers was only 40 impressions plus 12 AP impressions, most impressions are part of complete sets of 10 that are owned by museums and/or private collectors. Accordingly there are not many single Jasper Johns Numbers on the market, particularly in superb condition. Accordingly, this Jasper Johns Number 6 color lithograph published five decades ago is not only a great value but also highly desirable and collectible.

Writing in Beyond Print: Documenting the living history of the National Gallery of Australia's Kenneth Tyler Printmaking Collection, Emilie Owens observed:

In the late 1960s, under the direction of Ken Tyler, the print workshop Gemini GEL pushed the limits of printmaking, embracing all available technologies. This experimental ethos allowed artists to print on a larger scale and with more freedom than ever before. Created between 1968 and 1969, the ten works in the Color Numeral series were printed from the same stones Johns had used for his earlier Black Numeral series. Maintaining the delicate image for a second print series provided a challenge for the Gemini printers: using the ‘rub-up’ technique learned from the French master Marcel Durassier, Tyler managed to create a low-relief image from the flat drawings on the stones, thus preserving the surface and allowing for a longer print-run.

A subsequent problem faced by the Gemini workshop was the inking of the large plates in order to capture the rich, multi-colored finish Jasper Johns required. In the artist’s smaller numeral prints, the plate was inked with a regular-sized roller which had been run through the desired colors on a flat palette – a process impossible to replicate on a much larger scale. To achieve the smooth color gradation the Gemini GEL workshop spent six months researching and adapting inking techniques and using rollers that would cover the large stones smoothly and adequately with a single rotation. The end result was a roller so large it could not be inked by one person. Instead, a hand-fed ‘inking fountain’ had to be devised. This rather complex machine consisted of four rollers which agitated the inks to achieve a slight blending, after which the large roller would be lowered and coated, ready to ink the stone.

Jasper Johns said of his printmaking practice

"it’s the techniques that interest me. My impulse to make prints has nothing to do with my thinking it’s a good way to express myself. It’s more a means to experiment in the technique. What interests me is the technical innovation possible for me in printmaking." His fascination with the possibilities of printmaking and Gemini GEL’s commitment to innovation made for a successful working relationship, to which the lustrous Color Numerals are testament."

View Jasper Johns Prints at Joseph K.Levene Fine Art, Ltd. 

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