0 through 9
Jasper Johns American
Printer Donn Steward American
Publisher Universal Limited Art Editions American
Not on view
Since the mid-1950s, Johns has focused on everyday icons and emblems, or what the artist famously referred to as "things the mind already knows." He has repeatedly used numbers as a key motif, either depicted individually or layered over one another, to address modes of perception. In 0 through 9, the stenciled forms of the ten digits create a sense of sameness and neutrality, as if Johns’s personal touch and decisions regarding content were absent. Yet each number maintains the distinct visual qualities that, although barely discernable, serve to differentiate it from the others. By rendering numbers as abstractions comprising layered lines and forms, Johns challenges their functional duties and the systems of knowledge they connote.
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