Curator Renee Maurer gives a three minute sneak peek tour of the exhibition Jasper Johns: Variations on a Theme, from his first published print to his most recent work.
Curator Renee Maurer gives a three minute sneak peek tour of the exhibition Jasper Johns: Variations on a Theme, from his first published print to his most recent work.
I like that Jasper Johns looked at a blank lithography stone and decided the first image he would make with it was a zero. (I learned this fact on a recent staff tour of our current exhibition with Assistant Curator Renée Maurer.) It’s not difficult to imagine how a target came next–its basis is also a circle, also a symbol, but instead of quantifying nothingness, a target represents a very specific goal. Giotto famously demonstrated his artistic prowess by drawing a perfect circle without the aid of a compass. By beginning his printmaking career with the continuous, curved shape of infinity–first zeroed out, then honed in–Johns inscribed seemingly limitless potential.
Cecilia Wichmann, Publicity and Marketing Manager
This evening, a sold-out audience will look on as master printer Scip Barnhart demonstrates basic printmaking techniques on view in the exhibition Jasper Johns: Variations on a Theme. Barnhart, who teaches printmaking, art of the book, and drawing at Georgetown University and is director of Union Printmakers Atelier, created a limited edition print for the occasion. He printed one for each participant and hung them up to dry in his studio last week, then sent us this photo.