Buttocks/Knees/FootHandSockFloor/Face/Torso (little plates) [trial proof 1/4 with watercolor and pencil additions] 1976

Jasper Johns made this trial proof using etching, with watercolour and pencil additions. It's interesting because it's all about process, about trying things out. The surface is light, almost ghostly. The pencil lines are tentative, searching. You can see the artist thinking on the page, blocking out zones with a grid, then filling each space with an image or a word. Look at the lower-right zone, the loose watercolour rendering of what might be a torso, and how it relates to the list of body parts to the left, each word stacked on top of the other like a little poem. It's all so provisional, so beautifully unresolved. Johns reminds me of Robert Rauschenberg, another artist who blurred the line between painting and printmaking, embracing chance and improvisation. These guys create works that invite us to look closely and to question everything.