Jasper Johns: Gray

“To do a drawing for a painting most often means doing something very sketchy and schematic and then later making it polished...It’s done out of a different kind of energy. I love drawings, so I’ve always enjoyed making drawings that exist on their own." -Jasper Johns

Over the weekend I attended the "Jasper Johns: Gray" exhibit at the Met in NYC. It is a stirring exhibit, both in its haunting beauty and conceptual depth, and I encourage everyone to see it (it's open until May 4th). Though Johns is primarily known for his work as a painter, I think the exhibit raises a lot of issues pertinent to drawing. Many of the paintings are exhibited along with drawings and lithographs, some of which were preparatory but many of which were done after the painting, something Johns often does. Seeing the works together brings to light the "different kind of energy," as Johns mentions, as well as the different process of seeing and interpreting that distinguishes drawing from painting.

Also, the use of gray is very pertinent, since so many of the media in which we work are gray. The varying media Johns uses and the opportunity to compare them reveals how expressive gray can be in itself. I was really struck by how much color there is inherent in each work, both through the coloring of the media (be it encaustic, graphite, etc.) and through the feeling and mood of each work. There is no single "gray" color the way there is a pure pigment of red or blue; instead, every gray is made up of different colors while still being identifiable as gray. The whole spectrum of color is compressed into gray, and the subtlety of variation and expression that allows for is really conveyed in Johns's work.

Edit: If anyone is especially interested in Jasper Johns's drawings, there is a corollary exhibit of his drawings at the Matthew Marks Gallery.