Watchman [sketch for Watchman] 1967

This is Jasper Johns' "Watchman" sketch, probably made with charcoal and graphite on paper. It's a whisper of an image, isn't it? More about feeling than seeing, I think. Look at how Johns lays down those smudgy, atmospheric darks, and then lets them dissolve into the white of the paper. It’s like he's conjuring something from the shadows, allowing the process itself to dictate the form. My eye keeps going back to that heavy black vertical line that seems to bisect the composition - is it a barrier? A support? I love the way it’s grounded by the tentative circling lines to the left, which lend an air of instability. Johns’ work feels like a constant push and pull between revealing and concealing, a conversation he also has with Rauschenberg. This piece is about that, but also about how much you can say with very little.