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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Artwork Details
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Title:Sketch for "Good Time Charley"
Artist:Jasper Johns (American, born Augusta, Georgia, 1930)
Date:1961
Medium:Graphite and ink on blotting paper
Dimensions:38 x 24 in. (96.5 x 61 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Gift of Jim Dine, 1978
Accession Number:1978.566
Inscription: Inscribed and signed (lower right): For Jim Dine - J. Johns
the artist (from 1961; his gift to Dine); Jim Dine, New York (by 1964–78; his gift to MMA)
Jewish Museum, New York. "Jasper Johns," February 16–April 12, 1964, no. 126 (lent by Jim Dine, New York City).
Museum of Modern Art, Oxford. "Jasper Johns: Drawings," September 7–October 13, 1974, no. 47 (as "Good Time Charley," lent by Jim Dine).
London. Whitechapel Gallery. "Jasper Johns: Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, 1954–1964," December 2–31, 1964, no. 96 (lent by Jim Dine, New York).
Pasadena Art Museum. "Jasper Johns," January 26–February 28, 1965, no catalogue.
Sheffield. Mappin Art Gallery. "Jasper Johns: Drawings," October 19–November 17, 1974, no. 47.
Coventry. Herbert Art Gallery. "Jasper Johns: Drawings," November 30–December 29, 1974, no. 47.
Liverpool. Walker Art Gallery. "Jasper Johns: Drawings," January 4–February 2, 1975, no. 47.
Leeds. City Art Gallery. "Jasper Johns: Drawings," February 8–March 9, 1975, no. 47.
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)
1960
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