Sketch for "Good Time Charley"

Jasper Johns

1961 · Graphite and ink on blotting paper · Modern and Contemporary Art

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.

Artist

Jasper Johns

Date

1961

Medium

Graphite and ink on blotting paper

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Gift of Jim Dine, 1978