{
"data": {
"id": 147517,
"accession_number": "1973.28",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Reconstruction, 1959. Jasper Johns (American, b. 1930). Encaustic and collage on canvas; framed: 154 x 114.5 x 4 cm (60 5/8 x 45 1/16 x 1 9/16 in.); unframed: 155 x 111.7 cm (61 x 44 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase, Accessions Reserve Fund, and Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund, 1973.28. \u00a9 Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Reconstruction",
"creation_date": "1959",
"creation_date_earliest": 1959,
"creation_date_latest": 1959,
"artists_tags": [
"LGBTQ+ (after 1900)",
"male"
],
"culture": [
"America"
],
"technique": "encaustic and collage on canvas",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "American Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "American - Painting",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Framed: 154 x 114.5 x 4 cm (60 5/8 x 45 1/16 x 1 9/16 in.); Unframed: 155 x 111.7 cm (61 x 44 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"framed": {
"height": 1.54,
"height_inch": 60,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.625,
"width": 1.145,
"width_inch": 45,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0625,
"depth": 0.04,
"depth_inch": 1,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.5625
},
"unframed": {
"height": 1.55,
"height_inch": 61,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 1.117,
"width_inch": 44,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": "\u00a9 Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY",
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Inscribed on back of canvas: Reconstruction/ J. Johns '59",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 301878,
"title": "Year in Review: 1973",
"description": "Year in Review: 1973. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 30-March 17, 1974).",
"opening_date": "1974-01-30T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 302330,
"title": "Heritage and Horizon: American Painting 1776 - 1976",
"description": "Heritage and Horizon: American Painting 1776 - 1976. Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, NY (organizer) (March 7-April 11, 1976); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (May 2-June 13, 1976); The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH (July 4-August 15, 1976); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 8-October 10, 1976).",
"opening_date": "1976-03-07T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 224466,
"title": "Abstract Expressionism in the United States",
"description": "Abstract Expressionism in the United States. Centro Cultural Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City (October 10, 1996-January 12, 1997).",
"opening_date": "1996-10-10T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 177249,
"title": "Jasper Johns: An Allegory of Painting, 1955-1965",
"description": "Jasper Johns: An Allegory of Painting, 1955-1965. National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (organizer) (January 28-April 29, 2007).",
"opening_date": "2007-01-28T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 367813,
"title": "Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror",
"description": "Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (organizer) (September 29, 2021-February 13, 2022) https://www.philamuseum.org/calendar/exhibition/jasper-johns-mindmirror.",
"opening_date": "2021-09-29T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "CMA 1974: \"Year in Review 1973\" Bulletin LXI (February 1974), p. 77, cat. no. 148, repr. p. 56.",
"opening_date": "1974-02-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Buffalo, NY. Albright Knox Art Gallery, Heritage and Horizons: American Paintings 1776-1976, March 6-April 11, 1976, cat. no. 59 (also to Detroit Institute of Arts, May 5-June 13, 1976; Toledo Museum of Art, July 4-August 15, 1976; and The Cleveland Museum of Art, September 8-Octiber 10, 1976).",
"opening_date": "1976-03-06T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Jasper Johns was awarded the Medal of Freedom, bestowed by President Barack Obama in 2011.",
"description": "In the encaustic technique, pigment is suspended in wax that is heated and used as paint, and dries quickly once it is applied to the canvas. The gesture of the artist\u2019s hand and the strokes and drips of the brushwork are thus readily apparent. Johns also applied a piece of extra canvas to this work, folding it into the surface to create a three-part composition. The title suggests that the painting really only has meaning in the mind of the spectator, who \u201creconstructs\u201d the work according to the basic vocabulary of marks and materials that the artist presents.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60472525"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Henning, Edward B. \u201cReconstruction: A Painting by Jasper Johns.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 60, no. 8 (October 1973): 234\u2013241.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 234, fig. 1; Mentioned: p. 238",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152491"
},
{
"citation": "\u201cThe Year in Review for 1973.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 2 (February 1974): 31\u201378.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 56; Mentioned: p. 77, no. 148",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152513"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 255",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n275"
},
{
"citation": "Bernstein, Roberta, Heidi Colsman-Freyberger, Caitlin Sweeney and Betsy Stepina Zinn. Jasper Johns: Catalogue Raisonne\u0301 of Painting and Sculpture. NY: The Wildenstein Plattner Institute, 2017.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 156-157, cat. # P78",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Bernstein, Roberta, Heidi Colsman-Freyberger, Caitlin Sweeney and Betsy Stepina Zinn. Jasper Johns: Catalogue Raisonne\u0301 of Painting and Sculpture. NY: The Wildenstein Plattner Institute, 2017.",
"page_number": "Reprorreproduced: p. 119, cat #: P78",
"url": null
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1973.28",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Purchase, Accessions Reserve Fund, and Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 147517,
"creators": [
{
"id": 39574,
"description": "Jasper Johns (American, b. 1930)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1930",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1973-12-28T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1959,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1959",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-01 06:50:46.592000"
}
}