Untitled 2000

This untitled print was made by Jasper Johns and, like much of his work, it's a collision of recognizable images and abstract marks. The colors are muted, a warm and earthy palette that feels both familiar and distant, like a half-forgotten memory. Look at the lower left, where the orange ground almost dissolves into a field of granular specks, like salt on the surface of a photograph. Then, notice how Johns overlays these dissolving grounds with bold geometric elements: black and white stripes, a dark spiral, a diamond-shaped lattice. There's an old family photo floating there too. It's a collage of disparate elements, refusing to cohere into a single narrative. I think of Rauschenberg when I see this. Johns and Rauschenberg were friends and collaborators, and they shared a similar interest in the poetics of assemblage, the way disparate elements can come together to create new meanings. Johns embraces ambiguity, challenging us to find our own way through the maze of images and marks.