id: 153784 accession number: 1987.79 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1987.79 updated: 2022-01-04 17:03:48.744000 Untitled II (Ruler), 1969. Jasper Johns (American, b. 1930). Etching and aquatint; The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1987.79 © Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY title: Untitled II (Ruler) title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1969 creation date earliest: 1969 creation date latest: 1969 current location: creditline: John L. Severance Fund copyright: © Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY --- culture: America, 20th century technique: etching and aquatint department: Prints collection: PR - Etching type: Print find spot: catalogue raisonne: Field ULAE 80 --- CREATORS * Jasper Johns (American, b. 1930) - artist --- measurements: state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Year in Review for 1987 opening date: 1988-02-24T05:00:00 The Year in Review for 1987. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 24-April 17, 1988). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: Jasper Johns (American, born 1930) Untitled, Second State, 1969 Etching, aquatint, and photogravure, edition 13/15 John L. Severance Fund 1987.79 Jasper Johns began to include measuring devices in his paintings in the late 1950s, attaching to their surface objects such as actual thermometers and rulers. In a number of them, Johns used rulers as art tools—smearing paint with them and leaving them present on the canvas. A ruler is used to measure the real world and thus provides concrete factual information about the objects in it. But by co-opting the ruler as a painting tool and using it as a foil to the abstract nature of art, Johns suggests how much the subjectivity of the eyes and mind has to do with the nature of what we see. In this print, Johns used a photograph of a ruler in actual size and then translated it into an etched image, which is presented against a dark background of tone created through aquatint. The etched lines above the ruler suggest the dragging motion of his hand against the plate. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS --- IMAGES