Untitled [2nd state] 1997

Jasper Johns made this print, sometime in the last century, using etching on paper. You know, the usual. It's all about the lines, isn't it? There's this ghostly, greyed-out blueprint of a building smack up against these almost doodley images: a Picasso-esque head, a ladder, some geometric shapes. Looking closely, you can almost feel the scratch of the etching needle. The lines are so decisive, yet the composition feels so open, like Johns is leaving room for us to wander around in his head. I think of Cy Twombly when I look at this - both artists are so good at making these super-intellectual, yet totally intuitive marks. It's like they're drawing from some shared subconscious, inviting us to get lost in the process of seeing. And that, for me, is what art is all about.