Untitled (White Mezzotint) [trial proof] 1995

This is a trial proof of a mezzotint by Jasper Johns; it's all about inky darkness dramatically interrupted by these ghostly white figures. You know, I always feel for the artist making a print - all that wiping and pressure, not knowing exactly how it will turn out. Johns is a master of nuance and here he uses this mezzotint ground to full effect! The tonal range he achieves is unbelievable! What could he have been thinking as he made this? I imagine him carefully scraping the plate, revealing these shapes that seem to float in a dreamscape. Take the central motif: a face? A bicycle? Maybe it relates to the 'hinged paintings' and 'fragmented objects' that Johns developed in his paintings. Look at these shapes closely; a sun, waves, mountains. He's in conversation with other artists like Rauschenberg, Cage, and Duchamp, echoing their ideas while pushing his own vision. Johns invites us into a world of ambiguity, where meaning is not fixed but always in flux, like the ink on the plate.