Target
The target has been a central motif in Johns’s work since 1955. He has depicted this deceptively simple image in a range of different media, translating between contexts and materials. Johns’s approach prioritizes process and experimentation over definitive conclusions. As the artist famously wrote in a notebook in 1963–64: "Take an object / Do something to it / Do something else to it."
This work presents the outlines of five concentric circles accompanied by three dried watercolor cakes in the primary colors and a small red paintbrush. Johns wryly makes reference to the ubiquity and banality of targets, as well as to the seeming simplicity of his own celebrated creations. Below the work's stamped title and date is the artist’s signature followed by the word "AND" with a blank line, anticipating the addition of another name, that of Johns’s eventual collaborator. Target thus generates a paradox: the work can only be "completed" by someone else, but to do so would perhaps also destroy the integrity of the artwork. Therefore the work must remain in a perpetually unfinished state.
This work presents the outlines of five concentric circles accompanied by three dried watercolor cakes in the primary colors and a small red paintbrush. Johns wryly makes reference to the ubiquity and banality of targets, as well as to the seeming simplicity of his own celebrated creations. Below the work's stamped title and date is the artist’s signature followed by the word "AND" with a blank line, anticipating the addition of another name, that of Johns’s eventual collaborator. Target thus generates a paradox: the work can only be "completed" by someone else, but to do so would perhaps also destroy the integrity of the artwork. Therefore the work must remain in a perpetually unfinished state.
Artwork Details
- Title: Target
- Artist: Jasper Johns (American, born Augusta, Georgia, 1930)
- Printer: Kenneth E. Tyler (American, born East Chicago, Indiana, 1931)
- Publisher: Gemini G.E.L.
- Date: 1971
- Medium: Lithograph with rubber stamp impression and collaged elements (one watercolor brush and three dried watercolor cakes) in hinged wood case
- Dimensions: Sheet: 12 1/4 x 10 in. (31.1 x 25.4 cm)
Case: 1 in. × 13 3/8 in. × 11 1/8 in. (2.5 × 34 × 28.3 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Bequest of William S. Lieberman, 2005
- Object Number: 2007.49.572
- Rights and Reproduction: Art © Jasper Johns and Gemini G.E.L. / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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Jasper Johns
Universal Limited Art Editions
1964
Jasper Johns
Gemini G.E.L.
1969
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1967
Multiple artists/makers
1967, published in 1st Etchings, 2nd State 1967–69
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