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Although M appears as a largely gray piece, it is a lithograph in eight colors. A screw eye at the top, a brush in the middle, and a pulley at the bottom are arranged along a central axis against a field of heavily brushed and sponged pigment. All are labeled with handwritten notations and arrows. At the lower left is the letter M twice, both in stencil, the smaller black one resting on top of a larger one rendered in light gray. The entire image is contained within a crisp tan border, with the exception of the pulley, which tantalizingly hangs below the border, giving the illusion of three-dimensionality. Is it flat or deep? Is it a pulley or the image of a pulley?
A rather simplistic composition, M is a tribute to the much admired Duchamp, as signified by the letter of the title. The objects are the kind of “junk” readily found in an artist’s studio, the kind of ordinary “stuff” that Duchamp incorporated in his own work, such as the infamous urinal transformed into a work he called Fountain or his bicycle wheel mounted onto a stool. Like Duchamp’s objects, Johns’s tools are illogically arranged and wired together, and, just in case the viewer does not understand, each is conveniently identified. The viewer accepts these labels easily. After all, the pulley is a pulley, and not a rabbit or something else. But, in reality, Johns has created only the image of a pulley, and he is challenging us to realize that.
When an interviewer asked Johns about his affinities with Duchamp, Johns replied, “Yes, but he has qualities that are foreign to my nature. I think he is more cheerful in his skepticism and more detached. … I am aware of my own morbidity, my feelings of shortcoming.” In M, the dominant gray color might initially imply a bleak state of mind, but gray is actually Johns’s favorite color. Every one of his major iconic serialized forms has been articulated in gray, which allows him, in an ironic and Duchampian way, to contemplate color because it is absent. Johns recalled an exchange he had with the older artist: “I was working on a colored numbers painting. When I worked on it for longer than a minute, the entire painting would turn gray to me. I couldn’t see any of the colors, and I would have to stop. … I mentioned this to Duchamp. He said, ‘Perhaps you have a physiological need.’” [2]
Notes:
[1] Johns, quoted in Gene Swenson, “What is Pop Art? Part II,” Artnews 62, no.10 (February 1964), 43, 66–67, reprinted in Kirk Varnedoe, ed. Jasper Johns: Writings, Sketchbook Notes, Interviews (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1996), 92.
[2] Johns, quoted in Bryan Robertson, and Tim Marlow, "The Private World of Jasper Johns." Tate: The Art Magazine (London), issue 1(winter 1993): 40¬–47. Interview with Johns, on the occasion of American Art in the 20th Century: Painting and Sculpture, 1913–1993, Royal Academy of Arts, London, reprinted in Kirk Varnedoe, ed. Jasper Johns, 286, and Johns quoted in Michael Crichton, Jasper Johns (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with the Whitney Museum of American Art, rev. ed. 1994), 39.
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)
1989
Jasper Johns
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (4/7/1989-6/1/1989)
2006-2007
Modern Fun: Prints from the ’70s and ’80s
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (10/3/2006-1/28/2007)
2007-2008
Word Play: Text and Modern Art
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (11/13/2007-5/ 4/2008)
Published References
DepartmentAmerican Art
M
Artist
Jasper Johns
(born 1930)
Date1972
Mediumeight-color lithograph
DimensionsFrame: 40 3/4 x 31 3/4 in. (103.5 x 80.6 cm)
Paper (uneven): 38 1/2 x 29 1/2 in. (97.8 x 74.9 cm)
Image: 27 3/4 x 18 5/8 in. (70.5 x 47.3 cm)
SignedJ Johns '72
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 number1983.2.16
DescriptionJasper Johns has been hard to categorize. Although he was part of the generation to chafe against the large-scale non-representational work of the Abstract Expressionists, he was also indebted to them. Like the Pop artists, he introduced familiar images in his work, his were just as banal, yet more cerebral and not so commercial. Emphatically, he distanced himself from the likes of Andy Warhol, Jim Dine, and Roy Lichtenstein: “I am not a Pop artist! Once a term is set, everybody tries to relate anybody they can to it because there are so few terms in the art world. Labeling is a popular way of dealing with things.” [1] For a time, critics called Johns a “Neo-Dada” artist, in part for his heretical use of such motifs as the American flag, and what was perceived as his anti-aesthetic attitude toward art. More significantly, however, the term suggests an allegiance to the work and theory of Marcel Duchamp, the chief exponent of Dada. In much of his output, Johns has paid homage directly and indirectly to the great Dadaist, whom he had met on several occasions, and for whom he wrote an obituary. Over time Johns was able to amass a small collection of Duchamp’s work.Although M appears as a largely gray piece, it is a lithograph in eight colors. A screw eye at the top, a brush in the middle, and a pulley at the bottom are arranged along a central axis against a field of heavily brushed and sponged pigment. All are labeled with handwritten notations and arrows. At the lower left is the letter M twice, both in stencil, the smaller black one resting on top of a larger one rendered in light gray. The entire image is contained within a crisp tan border, with the exception of the pulley, which tantalizingly hangs below the border, giving the illusion of three-dimensionality. Is it flat or deep? Is it a pulley or the image of a pulley?
A rather simplistic composition, M is a tribute to the much admired Duchamp, as signified by the letter of the title. The objects are the kind of “junk” readily found in an artist’s studio, the kind of ordinary “stuff” that Duchamp incorporated in his own work, such as the infamous urinal transformed into a work he called Fountain or his bicycle wheel mounted onto a stool. Like Duchamp’s objects, Johns’s tools are illogically arranged and wired together, and, just in case the viewer does not understand, each is conveniently identified. The viewer accepts these labels easily. After all, the pulley is a pulley, and not a rabbit or something else. But, in reality, Johns has created only the image of a pulley, and he is challenging us to realize that.
When an interviewer asked Johns about his affinities with Duchamp, Johns replied, “Yes, but he has qualities that are foreign to my nature. I think he is more cheerful in his skepticism and more detached. … I am aware of my own morbidity, my feelings of shortcoming.” In M, the dominant gray color might initially imply a bleak state of mind, but gray is actually Johns’s favorite color. Every one of his major iconic serialized forms has been articulated in gray, which allows him, in an ironic and Duchampian way, to contemplate color because it is absent. Johns recalled an exchange he had with the older artist: “I was working on a colored numbers painting. When I worked on it for longer than a minute, the entire painting would turn gray to me. I couldn’t see any of the colors, and I would have to stop. … I mentioned this to Duchamp. He said, ‘Perhaps you have a physiological need.’” [2]
Notes:
[1] Johns, quoted in Gene Swenson, “What is Pop Art? Part II,” Artnews 62, no.10 (February 1964), 43, 66–67, reprinted in Kirk Varnedoe, ed. Jasper Johns: Writings, Sketchbook Notes, Interviews (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1996), 92.
[2] Johns, quoted in Bryan Robertson, and Tim Marlow, "The Private World of Jasper Johns." Tate: The Art Magazine (London), issue 1(winter 1993): 40¬–47. Interview with Johns, on the occasion of American Art in the 20th Century: Painting and Sculpture, 1913–1993, Royal Academy of Arts, London, reprinted in Kirk Varnedoe, ed. Jasper Johns, 286, and Johns quoted in Michael Crichton, Jasper Johns (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with the Whitney Museum of American Art, rev. ed. 1994), 39.
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)
1989
Jasper Johns
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (4/7/1989-6/1/1989)
2006-2007
Modern Fun: Prints from the ’70s and ’80s
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (10/3/2006-1/28/2007)
2007-2008
Word Play: Text and Modern Art
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (11/13/2007-5/ 4/2008)
Published References
Status
Not on viewCollections