Untitled
1966
graphite
From the collection of Museum of Modern Art
1966
graphite
From the collection of Museum of Modern Art
Dominant colour
Untitled is a 1966 graphite by Jasper Johns, held at Museum of Modern Art.
This piece is a grid of numbers drawn in black. The numbers are messy, some smudged or overlapping. The paper has a faint brown tint, and the edges look rough. The whole thing feels handmade, not clean or perfect. The numbers aren’t in order—they’re scattered, some repeated, some cut off. The artist used pencil and wash, rubbing the graphite to blur parts. It’s not a picture of anything real. Try looking up cross-hatching next—it’s a way artists use lines to build shadows.
