Jasper Johns / In Press: The Crosshatch Works and the Logic of Print
Centering on Harvard’s collection of Johns’s signature “crosshatch” works of the 1970s, this exhibition explores the impact of print on his oeuvre. It examines “print” and “the press” in terms not only of printmaking and Johns’s celebrated experiments in that medium, but also in informational terms, tracing his frequent use of newspaper collage and its material, temporal, and political implications. Also featured is comparative material exploring Johns’s relationship to the history of printing.
Curated by Jennifer L. Roberts, Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University; with assistance from Jennifer Quick, PhD candidate, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University, and Agnes Mongan Curatorial Intern, Harvard Art Museums; Susan Dackerman, Director of Academic Programs, and Carl A. Weyerhaeuser Curator of Prints, Harvard Art Museums; and four Harvard College undergraduates: Jacob Cedarbaum, C. Andrew Krantz, Mary Potter, and Phillip Y. Zhang.
An exhibition catalogue comprising an essay by Jennifer L. Roberts and entries by Jennifer Quick is available. A digital publication with four interpretive essays by Jacob Cedarbaum, C. Andrew Krantz, Mary Potter, and Phillip Y. Zhang is also available.
The exhibition and two publications are made possible by generous funding from the Melvin R. Seiden and Janine Luke Fund for Publications and Exhibitions, Harvard Art Museums; the Provostial Fund in the Arts and Humanities, Harvard University; the Emily Rauh Pulitzer and Joseph Pulitzer Jr. Fund for Modern and Contemporary Art, Harvard Art Museums; and the Gurel Student Exhibition Fund, Harvard Art Museums.
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Two films by American artist Katy Martin will also be shown in the gallery. Hanafuda/Jasper Johns (1978–81), DVD from Super 8mm film, color, 35 minutes, documents Johns at work on the screenprints Cicada and Usuyuki, both of which are on display in the exhibition. Silkscreens (1978), DVD from Super 8mm film, color, 20 minutes, sound by Richard Teitelbaum, shows printmakers working on The Dutch Wives (1977), a twenty-nine-screen print executed two years after the painting of the same name. An example of this print also hangs in the exhibition. Watch the videos by clicking in the slideshow above or on our Vimeo channel.
Related Publications
Jasper Johns / In Press: The Crosshatch Works and the Logic of Print
Jennifer L. Roberts, with catalogue entries by Jennifer Quick ISBN 978-1-891771-60-6 Available May 2012 96 pages; 10 × 13 in. 35 color illustrations Hardcover, $45.00 Published by the Harvard Art Museums and Hatje Cantz Verlag Winner, American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) Best of New England (BoNE) 2013 Award Centering on Jasper Johns’s signature “crosshatch” works in the Harvard Art Museums collections, this catalogue explores the impact of print on the artist’s oeuvre. It examines “print” and “the press” with reference not only to Johns’s experiments in printmaking, but also to print as a medium of information transfer, tracing his frequent use of newsprint, with its temporal, political, and formal implications. Complementing the selection of Johns’s production with works by Albrecht Dürer, Sol LeWitt, Pablo Picasso, and others, the volume examines the history and character of print as it informs Johns’s work in all media. This catalogue and the exhibition it accompanies grew out of a collaboration between the Art Museums and Harvard University’s Department of History of Art and Architecture. Four undergraduates enrolled in a class with professor Roberts devoted to the study of Johns’s diptych painting The Dutch Wives (1975), on long-term loan to the Art Museums from the artist’s collection. The students helped select other objects for the related exhibition at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, and wrote interpretive essays for a companion digital publication. Jennifer L. Roberts is Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University. Jennifer Quick is a PhD candidate, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University, and Agnes Mongan Curatorial Intern, Harvard Art Museums.
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