Artwork Page for Usuyuki

Details / Information for Usuyuki

Usuyuki

1981
(American, b. 1930)
Culture
America
Support
Japanese laid paper
Measurements
Sheet: 73.8 x 118.7 cm (29 1/16 x 46 3/4 in.); Image: 69.9 x 115.3 cm (27 1/2 x 45 3/8 in.)
Catalogue raisonné
Field; ULAE 216
Copyright
© Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view

Description

The pattern of groups of parallel lines in varying directions, a design Johns once saw covering a passing car, appears in a group of paintings and prints entitled Usuyuki. In Japanese usuyuki means "light snow" or something that passes quickly, and the pale colors of the museum's 1977-78 Usuyuki painting (on view in gallery 239) and this print allude to something ephemeral. However, the works are extremely intricate. While the complex pattern of handrawn lines, which forms three triangles or polygons, creates an illusion of three dimensions, the underlying rectangular grid and the circular, brightly colored accents reinforce the flatness of the support. It is this spacial ambiguity that makes Usuyuki visually exciting and mentally stimulating and is characteristic of Johns's strongest work.

Usuyuki

1981

Jasper Johns

(American, b. 1930)
America

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