Johns rarely makes studies for paintings, rendering this large sketch something of an exception. The resulting painting follows its specifications closely: a ruler, attached to the stretcher bar by a wing nut, scrapes an arc of wax-based encaustic paint before being halted by a small metal cup. The thick blotting paper used for this study allowed Johns to abrade the surface without rupturing it, in order to approximate the ruler’s future movement across the painting’s surface. Partaking of Johns’s extensive interest in impressions, traces and imprints, this disruption of the paper’s surface amounts to a subtle lateral tear, like rubbing away a layer of skin.
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New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Recent Acquisitions: Twentieth Century Art Department," October 16, 1979–January 30, 1980, no catalogue.
Columbia. McKissick Museum, University of South Carolina. "Jasper Johns," May 1–August 6, 1989, not in brochure.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "Jasper Johns: An Allegory of Painting, 1955–1965," January 28–April 29, 2007, no. 45.
Kunstmuseum Basel. "Jasper Johns: An Allegory of Painting, 1955–1965," June 2–September 9, 2007, no. 45.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paper Trails: Selected Works from the Collection, 1934–2001," July 19–November 27, 2011, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Range: Experiments in New York, 1961–2007," August 18, 2017–February 25, 2018, no catalogue.
Jack Carr. "Johns: A Competent Gimmick Marketer." Independent Star-News (Pasadena, Calif.) (February 14, 1965), p. 60.
Theodore F. Wolff. "Today's 'Questioning' Art." Christian Science Monitor (December 3, 1979), p. 19.
Antoinette Owen. "Modern Materials in Drawings Part II—Supports." Drawing 7 (January–February 1986), p. 103, figs. 4 (detail), 5.
Jeffrey Weiss. Jasper Johns: An Allegory of Painting, 1955–1965. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2007, pp. 11, 164, no. 45, ill. (color) pp. 104, 164.
Harry Cooper. "Speak, Painting: Word and Device in Early Johns." October 127 (Winter 2009), p. 60.
Catherine Craft. "'Cut, Tear, Scrape, Erase': Notes on Paper in Twentieth-century Drawing." Master Drawings 50 (Summer 2012), pp. 176, 178, 183, 186 n. 57, fig. 12 (color).
Menil Collection, ed. Jasper Johns: Catalogue Raisonné of Drawing. Vol. 1, 1954–1965. Houston, 2018, pp. 222–23, no. D93, ill. (color), call it "Good Time Charley".
Menil Collection, ed. Jasper Johns: Catalogue Raisonné of Drawing. Vol. 6, Reference. Houston, 2018, pp. 16, 19, 26, 35, 38, 71, 80.
Jasper Johns (American, born Augusta, Georgia, 1930)
1967–68
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