Summer (frontispiece for "Poems" by Wallace Stevens) [1/2 trial proof] 1985

Jasper Johns made this trial proof for a frontispiece to Wallace Stevens’s *Poems*, but when it was? Who knows! What jumps out is the use of black ink to create such a sense of depth and texture. It's all process, isn't it? The layering of different marks and images, like the figure, brickwork, and what looks like a skeleton, all work together to form a kind of material collage. There's a tension between what’s visible and what's obscured, a common theme in Johns’ work. Look at the upper right corner, the way he’s built up the surface with these almost floral shapes. It's like he's pushing the boundaries of the printmaking medium. Johns, like Rauschenberg, was always questioning the relationship between art and everyday life. It's this kind of playful experimentation that keeps art alive, always open to new interpretations.