Jasper Johns
Study According to What
1968
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Jasper Johns
Study According to What
1968
Physical Qualities
Graphite, graphite wash, and opaque watercolor on paper, Sheet: 883 × 661 mm. (34 3/4 × 26 in.)
Credit Line
Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection
Object Number
1970.4.18
In 1964, Jasper Johns created a five-panel painting (see below) that includes real objects protruding and bending up from its surface. Johns’ use of actual items reflects his lifelong interest in the work of Marcel Duchamp, who exhibited everyday objects, including
a urinal, as “readymade” sculptures. Five years after Johns completed the painting, he made the present drawing, concentrating on the hanger and spoon, two of the painting’s smallest elements.
In the painting, Johns created three separate depictions of a single object: a traced hanger, a real hanger protruding from the surface, and its cast shadow. In the drawing, however, he included only two: a tracing and a rendering of the same object. Both are illusions, but the tracing is a more accurate reflection of the hanger’s actual shape. On the other hand, the bent version, with its shading and illusionistic three-dimensionality, reveals more of the artist’s hand in its rendering.
In the drawing, Johns isolates two objects, presenting them in multiple ways in order to draw attention to those possible variations. Johns returned to the same imagery in 1971, when he created a series of lithographs focused on various aspects of the painting, including the hanger and spoon. As for the mysterious title, Johns said: “I made it up....,I think the note appearing in my sketchbook goes like ‘somewhere there is the question of seeing clearly, seeing what, according to what.’”
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 1970; Mr. Edward Benesch, NY; Leo Castelli Gallery, NY
Victor Carlson (organized and circulated by the BMA), "19th and 20th Century Prints and Drawings from The Baltimore Museum of Art." E.B. Crocker Art Gallery, Sacramento, November 3 - December 2, 1973; Honolulu Academy of Art, Honolulu, January 18 - February 17, 1974; The William Hayes Ackland Memorial Art Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, April 2 - April 21, 1974, cat. 28.
Victor Carlson and Carol Hynning Smith, BMA, "Master Drawings and Watercolors of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries"; circulated by the American Federation of Arts to the Guggenheim Museum, NY, 24 August - 7 October 1979; Des Moines Art Center, 19 November 1979 - 6 January 1980; Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, 8 February - 16 March, 1980; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1 May - 22 June 1980 ; Denver Art Museum, 12 July - 24 August, 1980.
BMA, "Drawings from the Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection," 14 October - 12 December 1982.
BMA, "Selected Drawings from the Thomas E. Benesch Collection," 3 September - 1 December 1985.
BMA, "Modern Master Drawings from the Museum's Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection," 21 February - 30 April 1989.
Nan Rosenthal and Ruth Fine, National Gallery of Art, "The Drawings of Jasper Johns," 20 May - 29 July 1990, traveled to Whitney Museum of American Art (only), 22 February - 7 April 1991, cat. no. 56.
BMA, "Drawings of the 1960s from the Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection," 17 November 1993 - 30 January 1994.
BMA, "Major Modern Drawings from the Collection," 8 October - 18 December 1994.
Kirk Varnadoe, MoMA, "Jasper Johns," 20 October 1996 - 21 January 1997, cat. no. 138 (MoMA venue only).
BMA, "Select Views: Drawings from the Benesch Collection," 21 May - 30 July 2006.
BMA, "On Paper: Drawings from the Benesch Collection," 18 November 2012 - 10 February 2013.
Victor Carlson and Carol Hynning Smith, BMA, "Master Drawings and Watercolors of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries"; circulated by the American Federation of Arts to the Guggenheim Museum, NY, 24 August - 7 October 1979; Des Moines Art Center, 19 November 1979 - 6 January 1980; Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, 8 February - 16 March, 1980; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1 May - 22 June 1980 ; Denver Art Museum, 12 July - 24 August, 1980.
BMA, "Drawings from the Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection," 14 October - 12 December 1982.
BMA, "Selected Drawings from the Thomas E. Benesch Collection," 3 September - 1 December 1985.
BMA, "Modern Master Drawings from the Museum's Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection," 21 February - 30 April 1989.
Nan Rosenthal and Ruth Fine, National Gallery of Art, "The Drawings of Jasper Johns," 20 May - 29 July 1990, traveled to Whitney Museum of American Art (only), 22 February - 7 April 1991, cat. no. 56.
BMA, "Drawings of the 1960s from the Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection," 17 November 1993 - 30 January 1994.
BMA, "Major Modern Drawings from the Collection," 8 October - 18 December 1994.
Kirk Varnadoe, MoMA, "Jasper Johns," 20 October 1996 - 21 January 1997, cat. no. 138 (MoMA venue only).
BMA, "Select Views: Drawings from the Benesch Collection," 21 May - 30 July 2006.
BMA, "On Paper: Drawings from the Benesch Collection," 18 November 2012 - 10 February 2013.
"The Thomas Edward Benesch Memorial Collection," BMA, 1970, unpaginated.
BMA Today, Spring 2006, ill. p. 7.
"The Baltimore Museum of Art: Celebrating a Museum," The Baltimore Museum of Art, 2014, p. 243.
Clisby, Roger D. 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings from the Baltimore Museum of Art: Catalogue [of an exhibition held at the E. B. Crocker Art Gallery, November 3 - December 2, 1973, Honolulu Academy of Arts, January 18 - February 17, 1974, and William Hayes Ackland Memorial Art Center, April 2 - April 21, 1974]. [Sacramento, CA]: E. B. Crocker Art Gallery, 1973, cat. no. 28, unpaged.
Carlson, Victor, and Carol Hynning Smith. Master Drawings and Watercolors of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: The Baltimore Museum of Art. New York, NY: The American Federation of Arts, 1979, pp. 14, 187, ill.
Rosenthal, Nan, and Ruth E. Fine. The Drawings of Jasper Johns. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1990, pages 54 and 202-203.
Inscribed: lower left in graphite: "ACCORDING TO WHAT"; lower right in graphite: "Jasper Johns / '69"
