Jasper Johns
Figure 6 (ULAE 65), 1969
From Numbers Series
color lithograph 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
Michael Crichton, Jasper Johns, Harry N.Abrams, Inc./The Whitney Museum of Art, New York, 1977, plate 139, n.p., another impression reproduced.
Carlo Huber, Jasper Johns: Graphik, Verlag Klipstein und Kornfeld, Bern, 1970, plate 110, n.p., another impression reproduced in color.
Shigeo Chiba, Jasper Johns Prints Exhibition 1960–1989, Tokyo, 1990, Japan Art and Culture Association/Kokusai Geijutsu Bunka Shinkokai, n.p., plate 8, another impression reproduced.
Michel Butor, Kathleen Slavin, Jasper Johns Gravures Dessins 1960-1991, Foundation Vincent Van Gogh, 1992, no. 7, pg. 52, another impression reproduced in color.
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.
Susan Lorence, Technique and Collaboration in the Prints of Jasper Johns, Castelli Gallery, New York, 1996, Catalogue Reference 12g, n.p., another impression reproduced in black and white.
Roberta Bernstein, Carter E. Foster, Jasper Johns Numbers, Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003, pg. 79, another impression reproduced in color.
Carlos Basualdo, Scott Rothkopf, Jasper Johns Mind/Mirror, Whitney Museum of American Art, 2021, another impression reproduced plate 46, pg. 86.
Exhibited
Kunsthalle, Bern, Die Grafik Jasper Johns, April 17-May 29, 1971, another impression exhibited.
Whitney Museum of America Art, New York, Jasper Johns, October 18, 1977-January 22, 1978, another impression exhibited.
The Seibu Museum of Art, Tokyo, Prints Exhibition 1960–1989, Traveled to The Seibu Department Store, Isetan Museum of Art, Tokyo, April 26th—May 15th, 1990, Isetan Department Store, Niigata, June 7-19, 1990, Isetan Department Store, Urawa, July 18-24, 1990, Isetan Department Store, Matsudo, August 9—August 14, 1990, Isetan Department Store, Shizuoka, August 23—August 28, 1990, another impression exhibited.
Foundation Vincent Van Gogh, Arles, Jasper Johns Prints and Drawings from the Castelli collection, July 4-September 30, 1992, another impression exhibited.
Jasper Johns Mind/Mirror, Whitney Museum of American Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
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. Most single 0-9 number impressions are part of complete sets of 10 Numbers owned by museums and/or private collectors. As a result, there are not many single Jasper Johns Numbers impressions on the market, particularly in outstanding condition. Accordingly, this 1969 signed, dated and numbered Jasper Johns Number 6 color lithograph published five decades ago is not only a great value but also highly desirable and collectible.
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."
Jasper Johns Prints at Joseph K. Levene Fine Art, Ltd.
