The Seasons [1/2 proof of cut plate "Winter"] 1990

Jasper Johns made this proof of a cut plate in black ink with etching and drypoint. You can see the ghost of a figure and a scaffolding-like structure suspended, hovering. It feels so tentative, doesn't it? I imagine Johns in the studio, reworking an image, maybe even destroying it to make something new. What’s he thinking as he scrapes away at the plate? Does he stop and look? This figure, so ambiguous, has such a fragile presence. Like it could dissolve at any moment. The drypoint gives a soft, fuzzy quality to the lines, as if the image is emerging from a mist. And then the dots – are they snow, or something else entirely? Johns plays with these visual elements, keeping the image open to possibilities. He leaves you and me to dream up its meaning. Johns is forever responding to the art of the past and pushing printmaking into new territory. That's the thing about art, it’s a constant conversation across time, with artists bouncing ideas off each other, making something totally new in the process. It's this ambiguity that makes it alive, right?