Katonah Museum of Art Jasper Johns and John Lund
Arts | Westchester
A Union of Visual Masters
"Have an object. Do something to information technology. Do something else to it." These ofttimes-cited instructions were written by Jasper Johns as directives to himself, and they are particularly suited to his work in printmaking, with its multi-stepped process and its toolbox of techniques. But to "practice something" and and so "do something else" when printing requires skilled help.
The 53 pieces in "Jasper Johns and John Lund: Masters in the Print Studio" at the Katonah Museum of Art were all printed by John Lund, a master printer who has worked with Mr. Johns for over four decades. The exhibition non only presents a selective survey of Mr. Johns'southward impress work during the second part of his career, information technology also illuminates the critical role of the printer, seen through the unique and at present sectional professional person human relationship between Mr. Johns and Mr. Lund.
Curated by Ellen J. Keiter, the museum's manager of exhibitions, and Belinda Roth, its quondam interim executive managing director, the show is arranged chronologically. Information technology begins with "Loving cup ii Picasso," a lithograph created in 1973 as a tribute to Picasso. The image is a Rubin'due south vase, the classic is-it-a-vase-or-is-it-a-profile optical illusion, this one with Picasso's silhouetted profile forming the contours of a cream-colored vase.
Prototype
The slice marks the first time Mr. Johns and Mr. Lund worked together. They had met the year earlier at Universal Limited Fine art Editions, a art publisher on Long Island. Mr. Johns had been making prints since 1960 and often published editions at Universal. Mr. Lund, employed there every bit an apprentice, processed and proofed the "Loving cup ii Picasso" plates.
The impress is noteworthy as ane of Mr. Johns's primeval depictions of a Rubin's vase, a motif that recurs throughout the exhibition. The vase appears prominently as tardily every bit 2011 in the "Shrinky Dink" etchings, and in varied iterations of "The Seasons," a serial that the two men worked and reworked — re-etching, burnishing, recombining details and finally cutting up and reconfiguring the plates — from 1985 until 1992.
Mr. Lund described an feel that transformed the 4 "Seasons" etchings fabricated in 1987 from blackness and white to color. "We did something on the spur of the moment," he said by telephone. "He put a sheet of Mylar over the 'Spring' plate and painted colors on it. We printed the Mylar as a monotype and then printed the plate over it, and it looked so beautiful that information technology was obvious this was the way to go."
Image
Working on "The Seasons," which are heavy with personal references, deepened the rapport between the creative person and the printer. Inside a few years of completing the series, Mr. Johns had moved from Manhattan to Sharon, Conn., and Mr. Lund had designed and equipped a print studio in a onetime horse stable on the property, fastened by a short corridor to Mr. Johns'south painting studio.
Past 1996, Mr. Lund and his family were living in the gatehouse on the 200-acre estate, and two years later, Mr. Johns established his own publishing imprint, Low Road Studios. Mr. Lund has been Mr. Johns's sole printmaking collaborator since 1995.
Mr. Lund is soft-spoken and humble, qualities that accept surely contributed to his success in serving Mr. Johns's vision. "In that location's a back and forth between usa, and we've developed a certain agreement," he said. "Sometimes I have to take control, but most of the time I'yard sitting back trying to interpret his intentions and find a manner to make them work. I guess I take an power to be unnoticed but nevertheless at that place and useful."
Image
Mr. Lund's expert usefulness is apparent throughout "Masters in the Print Studio," as is Mr. Johns's relentless digging. The commencement Depression Road print, "Flag on Orange," features one of the creative person's most recognizable symbols, the American flag, floating confronting a sea of orangish. The carving's watery texture, accomplished through spit-seize with teeth aquatint, exemplifies the interplay of the two men's strengths.
The newest prints in the evidence, from 2012, are small black-and-white lithographs of the numerals 0 to 9, a subject Mr. Johns has investigated mayhap more than whatsoever other. "The architecture is the same," Mr. Lund said, "simply the treatments are different from annihilation he's done before."
The exhibition includes photographs of the men working, and a video of Mr. Lund discussing their collaboration. I area examines the printmaking process, with progressive proofs illustrating the stages a print goes through, and a notebook of reproductions of trial proofs for "Untitled," an etching from 1998, that reveal a surprising assortment of color combinations and compositional arrangements that were explored during the quest for the final version.
Together, the creative person and the printer have created more than than seventy editions. Mr. Johns, who will turn 84 next month, continues to renegotiate his cloth (his latest works, including several printed by Mr. Lund, are currently on view in "Jasper Johns: Regrets" at the Museum of Mod Art). Mr. Lund, in plow, continues to support Mr. Johns's artistic process.
"We share a mutual aesthetic in terms of what we both run across," Mr. Lund said. "Merely information technology'due south his work. It's not my role to influence information technology other than to make it look every bit good as it tin can perchance expect."
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/nyregion/a-marriage-of-visual-masters.html
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