Winner, American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) Best of New England (BoNE) 2013 Award

Centering on Jasper Johns’s signature “crosshatch” works in the Harvard Art Museums collections, this catalogue explores the impact of print on the artist’s oeuvre. It examines “print” and “the press” with reference not only to Johns’s experiments in printmaking, but also to print as a medium of information transfer, tracing his frequent use of newsprint, with its temporal, political, and formal implications. Complementing the selection of Johns’s production with works by Albrecht Dürer, Sol LeWitt, Pablo Picasso, and others, the volume examines the history and character of print as it informs Johns’s work in all media.

This catalogue and the exhibition it accompanies grew out of a collaboration between the Art Museums and Harvard University’s Department of History of Art and Architecture. Four undergraduates enrolled in a class with professor Roberts devoted to the study of Johns’s diptych painting The Dutch Wives (1975), on long-term loan to the Art Museums from the artist’s collection. The students helped select other objects for the related exhibition at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, and wrote interpretive essays for a companion digital publication.

Jennifer L. Roberts is Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University. Jennifer Quick is a PhD candidate, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University, and Agnes Mongan Curatorial Intern, Harvard Art Museums.