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Jasper Johns

1960, published 1963

A lithograph in which Jasper Johns treats the numeral zero as a worn, tactile subject, turning a familiar symbol into the focus of painterly attention.

At first you see a block of dense mustard‑yellow ink: a roughly printed band of blurred, ghostly numerals above a larger, hand‑scored oval where the zero appears, its surface full of smudges, scraped lines, and uneven ink that make the digit feel both graphic and weathered.

By isolating and reworking everyday signs like numerals, Johns helped shift art from expressive gesture to a language of objects and signs, bridging Abstract Expressionism toward Pop and Conceptual approaches that examine perception and meaning.

Palette

Art Terms

Lithography Print Monochrome Gestural Figure/ground relationship New York School Edition

Exhibitions

Jasper Johns: Lithographs

1970

Jasper Johns: A Print Retrospective

1986

Jasper Johns: Map

1971

Prints of the Sixties

1973