Image Coming Soon

Thermometer

1960

American, born 1930

During this period, Johns often made drawings that followed the composition and even brushwork patterns of paintings he had made one year prior. Reversing the typical process of drawings as preparatory works, and also by stripping them of color and reducing them in size, these works challenge notions of originality by essentially becoming reproductions of the earlier paintings, while also measuring the effects of color on perception.

Charcoal and pastel on paper

22 x 15 1/2 in. (55.9 x 39.4 cm)

Gift of the Virginia and Bagley Wright Collection, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum

2016.3.2

Provenance: [Universal Limited Art Editions (ULAE), Bayshore, New York]; purchased from ULAE by Virginia and Bagley Wright, Seattle, Washington, Dec. 19, 2002

Photo: Susan Cole

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistoryNew York, New York, Leo Castelli Gallery, Jasper Johns: Drawings and Sculptures and Lithographs, Jan. 31 - Feb. 25, 1961.

New York, New York, The Jewish Museum, Jasper Johns, Feb.16 - Apr. 12, 1964. (Catalogue)

London, England, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Jasper Johns: Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture 1954-1964, Dec. 2 - 31, 1964. (Catalogue)

Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art, The Drawings of Jasper Johns, May 20 - July 29, 1990 (Basel, Switzerland, Kunstmuseum, Aug. 19 - Oct. 28, 1990; London, England, Hayward Gallery, Nov. 29, 1990 - Feb. 3, 1991; New York, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Feb. 22 - Apr. 7, 1991).

Oxford, England, Museum of Modern Art, Jasper Johns Drawings, Sept. 7 - Oct. 13, 1974. (Catalogue)

New York, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Jasper Johns, A Retrospective Exhibition, Oct. 18, 1977 - Jan. 22, 1978 (Cologne, Germany,Museum Ludwig, Feb. 11 - Mar. 27, 1978; Paris, France, Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou, Apr. 18 - June 4, 1978; London, England, Hayward Gallery, June 21 - July 30, 1978; Tokyo, Japan, Seibu Museum of Art, Aug. 19 - Sept. 26, 1978; San Francisco, California, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Oct. 20 - Dec. 10, 1978). (Catalogue)

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Jasper Johns: A Selected View in Memory of Toiny Castelli, Nov. 23, 1988 - Jan. 15, 1989.

Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, The Drawings of Jasper Johns, May 20 - July 29, 1990 (Basel, Switzerland, (Kunstmuseum, Aug. 19 - Oct. 28, 1990; London, England, Hayward Gallery, Nov. 29, 1990 - Feb. 3, 1991; New York, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Feb. 22 - Apr. 7, 1991). (Catalogue)

Houston, Texas, The Menil Collection, Jasper Johns: Drawings, Jan. 21 - May 4, 2003. (Catalogue)

Pullman, Washington, Washington State University Museum of Art, Art & Context: The 1950s and '60s, Sept. 29 - Dec. 15, 2006.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, SAM at 75: Building a Collection for Seattle, May 5 - Sept. 9, 2007.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Target Practice: Painting Under Attack 1949-78, June 25 - Sept. 7, 2009. Text by Michael Darling. No cat. no., pp. 41-44,147, reproduced (listed as T2006.65.70).

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, City of Tomorrow: Jinny Wright and the Art That Shaped a New Seattle, Oct. 23, 2020 - Jan. 18, 2021.

Published ReferencesIshikawa, Chiyo, ed. "A Community of Collectors: 75th Anniversary Gifts to the Seattle Art Museum." Seattle: Seattle Art Museum. 2008. P. 42, illus.

Kozloff, Max. "Jasper Johns." New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1967.

Shapiro, David, David Whitney, and Christopher Sweet. Jasper Johns: Drawings 1954-1984. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1984.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

Learn more about Equity at SAM