In these paintings crosshatched brushstrokes are grouped together and carefully positioned to convey rhythm and pattern. This interest became evident again in the 1970s when Johns produced paintings and screenprints featuring a linear hatching and cross-hatching motif, such as Scent 1973–4 (Ludwig Collection, Aachen). Rather than presenting the numerals 0 to 9 serially or individually, the superimposition of 0 through 9 requires the viewer to look at individual numbers through each other. They are also things that are ‘seen and not looked at, not examined’ (Johns quoted in Garrels 2013, p.13) and facilitated Johns’s desire to direct the spectator’s focus towards questions of seriality and repetition. These commonplace subjects became, for Johns, a way of focusing the viewer’s attention on the painter’s methods, materials and techniques. Johns made his first Target and Number paintings in 19, and his first solo exhibition, at Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, in 1958, included work featuring what were by then his trademark subjects of flags, targets, numbers and letters of the alphabet. In 0 Through 9 the seriality indicated by the title is disrupted by the superimposition of the numbers in the image, so that the numerals become singular motifs, their forms interweaving, without the suggestion of a pattern or sequence. Further works present individual numerals, as can be seen in Figand Fig(both Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco reproduced in Garrels 2013, p.71). Construction with a Toy Piano of 1954 (Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel), his earliest surviving work, incorporates a row of numbers, while works such as Numbers 2005 (private collection reproduced in Garrels 2013, p.78) show repeated rows of numbers, again from 0 to 9. These include the lithograph 0 thro(collection of the artist) and the lead relief 0 thro(collection of Carolyn and Preston Butcher) (reproduced in Garrels 2013, pp.53, 54).įrom the beginning of his career Johns frequently used numbers as a subject for his painting. Johns also made three smaller paintings on paper, a metallic relief, a pastel and a lithograph (Alley 1981, p.375). In total, there are five paintings in the series the same size as the Tate work, including one made using a grey monochrome technique known as grisaille. ![]() ![]() The series began with a drawing of 1960 (Museum of Modern Art, New York). It is one of a series of twelve works by the artist, some produced in editions, that show the numbers 0 to 9 superimposed over one another. Johns/’61’ on the back of the canvas.Ġ through 9 was made by Johns in 1961 when he was living in New York. The painting is inscribed ‘Zero through Nine Johns ’61’ along the bottom edge and ‘J. Linear accents have been added in charcoal. This blending is evident throughout the entire composition, as is the multi-directional nature of the brushstrokes. Areas of colour are highly worked and blended within and across individual spaces created by the overlapping numbers. The application of the paint is characterised by heavy brush marks and oil films, along with widespread impasto. This large work, rendered in distinct areas of red, blue and golden yellow, presents the viewer with the numerical figures 0–9, each scaled to fill the whole canvas and superimposed over one another, such that while each number is visible, it is difficult to discern them individually. 0 through 9 is an oil painting on canvas by the American painter, sculptor and printmaker Jasper Johns.
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