Untitled (working proof 3rd state with ink and pencil additions) 1988

Curator: Jasper Johns' "Untitled (working proof 3rd state with ink and pencil additions)" from 1988 is before us. A mixed-media print brimming with abstract-expressionist flair. Editor: My immediate impression is a feeling of fragmented dreams. The layering creates a sense of depth, but it also feels disjointed, almost chaotic. Curator: The fragmented nature speaks to the complexities of memory and representation. Johns consistently grapples with how we perceive and assign meaning, often disrupting conventional narratives through his work. It is an expression of contemporary anxiety regarding a unified representational framework. Editor: Yes, the superimposition and juxtaposition of images and patterns are certainly disorienting. There are embedded symbols too: is that a nose, or a profile emerging in the lower register? It's like Johns is unearthing collective cultural memory, distorted yet familiar. Curator: Consider Johns's long engagement with the readymade. Here, the traces of previous states combined with the added ink and pencil subvert originality and authorship. He presents a meta-commentary on the act of artistic production. What does it mean to truly create something? Editor: Those rudimentary images evoke something visceral. And even beyond the primary motifs, there are secondary elements - those fields of colour. They are like dreamscapes that are haunting in the overall effect. Curator: These fields are also markers. Consider the purple hues, and ask if this signifies loss or reclamation. It becomes an exercise in interrogating subjective positions. The abstraction pushes against a singular truth. Editor: Absolutely. Looking closer, the textural quality becomes quite interesting. You know I have been thinking... could we also frame it as a commentary of consumerism of art within modern spaces? Curator: Precisely. Jasper Johns asks not just what art is but also its cultural consumption and its position in contemporary discourses of power. It has been wonderful discussing all this together. Editor: I quite agree, seeing those symbols as not just fragments but signifiers opens the viewing up to deeper contextual meaning!