cicada2
Jasper Johns
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Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns

Cicada

24 x 19 inches
Jasper Johns

Cicada
(ULAE 214)

1981
color screenprint on Kurotani Hosho paper
paper: 24 x 19 inches
image: 17 1/2 x 13 1/4 inches
frame: 26 3/8 x 21 inches
edition: 50 with 10 AP's & 3 PP's
signed & dated in pencil "J Johns 79-81" lower right
numbered in pencil lower left
printed By Kenjiro Nonaka, Hiroshi Kawanishi, Takeshi Shimada
published by Jasper Johns and Simca Print Artists, Inc., 1981

Literature
Richard Field, The Prints of Jasper Johns 1960-1993: A Catalogue Raisonne, ULAE, New York, 1994, Jasper Johns Cicada II (ULAE 214), 1981, Catalogue Reference ULAE 214, n.p., another impression reproduced in full-page color.

Museum Collections
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
National Gallery of Art
, Washington D.C.
The Broad Collection, Los Angeles

Beginning with his 1972 painting Untitled, Jasper Johns developed his motif of crosshatched lines, experimenting with colors, patterns, mirroring and reversals.

JASPER JOHNS CICADA

Beginning with his 1972 painting Untitled, Jasper Johns developed his motif of crosshatched lines, experimenting with colors, patterns, mirroring and reversals. According to the artist, the inspiration for his crosshatched works came from a pattern he glimpsed on a car that quickly passed him on a highway, "I only saw it for a second, but knew immediately that I was going to use it. It had all the qualities that interest me – literalness, repetitiveness, an obsessive quality, order with dumbness, and the possibility of a complete lack of meaning." Over the next ten years, Johns produced many variations on the crosshatch theme in paintings, drawings and prints.

Jasper Johns Untitled 1972
Jasper Johns
Untitled, 1972
Museum Ludwig, Cologne

With his Cicada prints, Johns sought to evoke a. New form, one that is growing and splitting in new visual directions. "The Cicada title has to do with the image of something bursting through its skin, which is what they do. You have all those shells where the back splits and they've emerged. And basically that kind of splitting form is what I tried to suggest." Johns illustrated this splitting by employing lines of primary and secondary colors. In Cicada (ULAE 204) a screenprint from 1979, the lines in the central area are red, yellow and blue while the lines at the outer edges are orange, green and violet.

Throughout his career, Johns experimented with showing the same idea differently, repeating forms and motifs in various media. As evidenced by his work from the 1970s and early 1980s, the crosshatch motif lent itself exceptionally well to this working method. Printmaking allowed Johns to elaborate on his compositional ideas and his printmaking influenced his painting just as much as his paintings influenced his prints. In fact, the use of crosshatching in both prints and paintings is significant. Johns has taken a technique historically used in drawing and printmaking to evoke shade and depth, making it the subject of his work.

The condition of Jasper Johns prints plays a pivotal role in preserving the integrity and value of these artworks. The presence of mat staining, fox marks, and attenuated colors can significantly impact the overall aesthetic and historical integrity of these artworks. When considering a purchase, it is crucial to be wary of dealers who claim prints are in good condition despite such issues, as this may be a deliberate attempt to mislead buyers. Genuine transparency is crucial in the art market, and dealers who purposefully downplay or omit details about these conditions are not acting in the best interest of the collector. It is also advisable to avoid dealers who artificially enhance colors in photos. Authenticity and transparency are essential in the art market, and artificially enhanced images can mislead potential buyers, distorting the true condition of the artwork. Choosing dealers who provide accurate representations, even if it reveals imperfections, ensures that buyers make well-informed decisions, maintaining the authenticity and value of Jasper Johns prints over time.