Untitled (Red) [working proof with chalk and pencil additions] 1982

Jasper Johns made this working proof, using chalk and pencil additions, and what strikes me is the way he lets you in on his process. It’s like he’s saying, "Hey, look, art is a conversation, not a declaration." The monochrome palette makes you focus on the textures, the layering. You can almost feel the grain of the stone, the smudge of the chalk. The arrow slashing through ‘Red, Yellow, Blue’ feels kind of punk, a challenge to the certainty of color theory. But look closer and the surface reveals all the marks of its making, a real material presence. Johns is always in dialogue with the past – think of Duchamp and his readymades, or the Abstract Expressionists' love of gesture. But he’s also talking to the future, inviting us to question what we think we know about art, about color, about seeing. It’s a generous act, this showing of his working. It says, "You can do this too. It's about the doing, not the knowing."