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Four Panels from Untitled consists of four discrete lithographs of the same dimensions, each with embossed areas. Panel A on the far left consists of parallel groups of lines, known as cross-hatching, that intersect one another at various angles. The lines are bright shades of green, orange, and purple on a white field. Embossed into the sheet are thin strips that mirror the slats in panel D, on the far right. In panels B and C, bold, irregular shapes in red and black are scattered on a field of white. B has an embossed cross-hatching pattern that mirrors the design of panel A. Panel C has embossed shapes that imitate the black and red shapes. Panel D has the same embossing as C, and its field is mottled in shades of yellow, pink, and tan. Slashing across the composition are thin ruler-like forms, each labeled with a stenciled L or R and numbered, apparently randomly. Attached to the slats are body parts, including a hand and foot, an arm, and an upper torso.
Like much of Johns’s work in lithography, Four Panels from Untitled relates to a painting in encaustic and oil with collage on canvas to which objects have been affixed. The cross-hatchings, used here for the first time and so named by Johns, and the flagstone patterns are interrelated in the way they came into being. Both were seen from a car window; the former derived from designs the artist saw fleetingly on a car on the Long Island Expressway. The flagstone pattern he also glimpsed briefly on a painted wall in Harlem. When he returned to photograph the site, he could not find it, so recreated it from memory. Johns was partial to both these motifs, although he employed the cross-hatching more expansively. “It had all the qualities that interest me—literalness, repetitiveness, an obsessive quality, order with dumbness, and the possibility of complete lack of meaning. They become very complex with the possibilities of gesture and the nuances that characterize the material—color, thickness, thinness—a large range of shadings that became emotionally interesting.” [2]
With the exception of the slats and casts in panel D, Four Panels from Untitled is largely non-representational. The whole evolves from the left to the right, with links made by way of the embossing, and then revolves back from D to A through the embossed pattern of the slats. The four lithographs, by virtue of their flatness and subtle embossing, are more unified than the painted version, which was hung without spaces between the panels. Panel D, in its coloration and fragmented casts, stands a bit apart from the other three, perhaps as a reminder that Johns’s art is more than purely decorative. “Seeing a thing can sometimes trigger the mind to make another thing. In some instances the new work may include, as a sort of subject matter, references to the thing that was seen. And, because works of painting tend to share the same aspects, working itself may initiate memories of other works. Naming or painting these ghosts sometimes seems a way to stop their nagging.” [3]
Notes:
[1] Johns, quoted in David Sylvester, "What the Pundits Say About Jasper Johns," Television script. BBC Channel VT4, recorded January 20, 1965, reprinted in Kirk Varnedoe, ed. Jasper Johns: Writings, Sketchbook Notes, Interviews (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1996), 113.
[2] Johns, quoted in Sarah Kent, "Jasper Johns: Strokes of Genius," Time Out (London), December 5–12, 1990, 14–15, reprinted in Varnedoe, Jasper Johns: Writings, 292.
[3] Johns, quoted in Roberta Bernstein, “Seeing a Thing Can Sometimes Trigger the Mind to Make Another Thing,” in Kirk Varnedoe, Jasper Johns: A Retrospective (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1996), 47.
ProvenanceTo 1983
Barbara B. Millhouse, New York, NY and Winston-Salem, NC. [1]
From 1983
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by Barbara B. Millhouse on December 29, 1983. [2]
Notes:
[1] Deed of Gift, object file.
[2] See note 1.
Exhibition History1976
Twentieth Century American Print Collection opening
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (12/3/1976)
2010-2011
Figuring Abstraction
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (10/30/2010-10/30/2011*)
*Only up until 4/26/2011
Published References
DepartmentAmerican Art
Four Panels from Untitled, 1972
Artist
Jasper Johns
(born 1930)
Date1973-1974
Mediumcolor lithograph with debossing on four pages
DimensionsFrame (each approximate): 43 1/4 x 31 in. (109.9 x 78.7 cm)
Paper (each approximate): 40 3/4 x 28 1/2 in. (103.5 x 72.4 cm)
SignedJJohns (on A)
JJ (B,C,D)
Credit LineGift of Barbara B. Millhouse
Copyright© 2021 Jasper Johns and Gemini G.E.L / Licensed by VAGA at Artist Rights Society (ARS), NY, Published by Gemini G.E.L.
Object number1983.2.17.a-d
DescriptionJasper Johns loved to work in multiples, whether doing the same image multiple times in multiple media, or in multiple formats. It let him dialogue with the work under differing circumstances, and also allowed the work to interact with other work. For him, a work of art was not static, as he proclaimed in an interview: “And the process of looking excludes many possibilities, because from moment to moment as we look we see what we see, at another moment in looking we might see differently. At any one moment one can’t see all the possibilities. And one proceeds as one proceeds, one does something and then one does something else.” [1]Four Panels from Untitled consists of four discrete lithographs of the same dimensions, each with embossed areas. Panel A on the far left consists of parallel groups of lines, known as cross-hatching, that intersect one another at various angles. The lines are bright shades of green, orange, and purple on a white field. Embossed into the sheet are thin strips that mirror the slats in panel D, on the far right. In panels B and C, bold, irregular shapes in red and black are scattered on a field of white. B has an embossed cross-hatching pattern that mirrors the design of panel A. Panel C has embossed shapes that imitate the black and red shapes. Panel D has the same embossing as C, and its field is mottled in shades of yellow, pink, and tan. Slashing across the composition are thin ruler-like forms, each labeled with a stenciled L or R and numbered, apparently randomly. Attached to the slats are body parts, including a hand and foot, an arm, and an upper torso.
Like much of Johns’s work in lithography, Four Panels from Untitled relates to a painting in encaustic and oil with collage on canvas to which objects have been affixed. The cross-hatchings, used here for the first time and so named by Johns, and the flagstone patterns are interrelated in the way they came into being. Both were seen from a car window; the former derived from designs the artist saw fleetingly on a car on the Long Island Expressway. The flagstone pattern he also glimpsed briefly on a painted wall in Harlem. When he returned to photograph the site, he could not find it, so recreated it from memory. Johns was partial to both these motifs, although he employed the cross-hatching more expansively. “It had all the qualities that interest me—literalness, repetitiveness, an obsessive quality, order with dumbness, and the possibility of complete lack of meaning. They become very complex with the possibilities of gesture and the nuances that characterize the material—color, thickness, thinness—a large range of shadings that became emotionally interesting.” [2]
With the exception of the slats and casts in panel D, Four Panels from Untitled is largely non-representational. The whole evolves from the left to the right, with links made by way of the embossing, and then revolves back from D to A through the embossed pattern of the slats. The four lithographs, by virtue of their flatness and subtle embossing, are more unified than the painted version, which was hung without spaces between the panels. Panel D, in its coloration and fragmented casts, stands a bit apart from the other three, perhaps as a reminder that Johns’s art is more than purely decorative. “Seeing a thing can sometimes trigger the mind to make another thing. In some instances the new work may include, as a sort of subject matter, references to the thing that was seen. And, because works of painting tend to share the same aspects, working itself may initiate memories of other works. Naming or painting these ghosts sometimes seems a way to stop their nagging.” [3]
Notes:
[1] Johns, quoted in David Sylvester, "What the Pundits Say About Jasper Johns," Television script. BBC Channel VT4, recorded January 20, 1965, reprinted in Kirk Varnedoe, ed. Jasper Johns: Writings, Sketchbook Notes, Interviews (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1996), 113.
[2] Johns, quoted in Sarah Kent, "Jasper Johns: Strokes of Genius," Time Out (London), December 5–12, 1990, 14–15, reprinted in Varnedoe, Jasper Johns: Writings, 292.
[3] Johns, quoted in Roberta Bernstein, “Seeing a Thing Can Sometimes Trigger the Mind to Make Another Thing,” in Kirk Varnedoe, Jasper Johns: A Retrospective (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1996), 47.
ProvenanceTo 1983
Barbara B. Millhouse, New York, NY and Winston-Salem, NC. [1]
From 1983
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by Barbara B. Millhouse on December 29, 1983. [2]
Notes:
[1] Deed of Gift, object file.
[2] See note 1.
Exhibition History1976
Twentieth Century American Print Collection opening
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (12/3/1976)
2010-2011
Figuring Abstraction
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (10/30/2010-10/30/2011*)
*Only up until 4/26/2011
Published References
Status
Not on viewCollections
circa 1918