Jasper Johns: Painting By Numbers

Jasper Johns, '0 Through 9', Oil on Canvas, 1961, Tate Gallery Collection

Writing the previous post caused me to reflect a little more on the aesthetic/poetic aspects of numbers (or more precisely, 'numerals' - I suppose), in opposition to, or in parallel with, their purely functional aspect.  For all my childhood alienation from the operations of 'number-machines', as experienced through the discipline of mathematics, the intrinsic beauty of  numerals, as visual signs/symbols (or even, more simply - as shapes) cannot be denied. And, just as the combination of individual letters into words, sentences, and whole texts provides an infinitely variable system for explaining experience, so does the sequencing of numbers, and their operations one upon another, supply a means of accounting for it of equally boundless scope. Thus, it becomes impossible not to find oneself drawn into a kind of semiotics of the numerical.

Even the simple ordering of numbers into the standard counting sequence suggests a sense of both expansion and forward motion expanding beyond the simple quantifying of goods or financial beans. Viewed in this manner, we must soon recognise their vital role in rationalising our apprehension of both space and time. This clearly leads, in one direction, towards physics - a realm in which the entirely consistent system of numbers quickly becomes paramount in the service of understanding the universe. However, in another direction, it may just as easily  lead to Philosophy - a field in which strictly striated/gridded structures give way to more rhizomatic conjunctions, and the fraught relationship between quantitive and qualitive world views comes into full focus [1.].

 

Jasper Johns, 'Numbers In Colour', Encaustic & Newspaper on Canvas, 1958-59, 
Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York

...Which mostly just makes me think - what a wonderful excuse to revisit the work of Jasper Johns for a brief spell. He is, after all, an artist in whose work the deployment of numerals and numerical sequences as visual motifs, often seems to point to such ideas with far more intrinsic poetry then any stumbling verbal attempt might achieve. For all that one might feel some sorrow over a certain perceived dilution of Johns' powers as the decades rolled by, there is a distilled intensity and philosophical scope in his earlier work which I still find irresistible. The many and various number-based pieces he produced throughout his career are often the purest epitome of that. Certainly, there can be few other artists who have quite so seductively united the worlds of visual beauty, semiotics and functional numbering systems within their work.

Jasper Johns,  'Zero To Nine', Encaustic & Newspaper on Canvas, 1959,
Museum Ludwig, Cologne

Jasper Johns, '0 Through 9', Lithograph, 1960, Minneapolis Institute of Art

Jasper Johns, 'Figure 5' (From 'Black Numeral' Series), Lithograph, 1968, Museum of Modern Art, NYC

Jasper Johns, 'Numbers', Cast Aluminium, 2007, Courtesy: Matthew Marks Gallery, NYC

[1.]: This also makes me value my childhood notion of 'Twenteen' all the more. Not only did it feel/sound right at the time - but might also be seen as a valuable randomising factor, and essential disruptor of the grid.

Significant Yellow Items: #2022.Y014 & #2022.Y015

 

All Yellow Gates Images: West Leicester, February 2022

As a child, I always had a somewhat troubled relationship with numbers. I laboured over maths lessons, and sometimes wonder if I was actually suffering from a mild case of dyscalculia. For a while, around 5 years-old, I even introduced a number called 'Twenteen' (between 19 and 20), when counting. That caused definite problems, as you can imagine. However, I have since come to adore the poetry of the concept - and often speculate on how one might write twenteen numerically (suggestions welcomed).

As an adult, I have contented myself with the fact that, some basic arithmetic and a small  facility with fractions and percentages, the ability to measure, and a moderate grasp on geometry, are about all I've really needed to get by. As I always suspected, simultaneous and quadratic equations appear to have had next to no bearing on my experience. This isn't to downgrade anyone who lives for numbers, but maybe just a recognition that we all speak slightly different languages - and that a quality-orientated world view is just as valid as a quantitative one.

All Hydrant Plaque Images: West Leicester, April 2022

One aspect of my numerical interactions which does remain intriguing, is a prevailing tendency to associate specific numbers with certain chromatic values. For me, 5 has always been situated somewhere within the yellow to yellow-orange spectrum. Apparently, that remains the case.  

Kafkaesque Diversion 2.1: The Passage (trans_late)

Original Images: West Leicester, April 2022

The diary has the lights on, and there are electric lights. Everything here is small but well maintained (the place was the best). The hallway is very high and one person has an account. Tours are attached to the terrain. The walls on both sides end under the lid. Twofold wars ventilate, thus the basement has small rooms without windows. The night end of this area was not completely covered by the war in the river (nor also in the rooms).

Photo-Manipulations: May 2022

Many trees will be near the main silent clearing - the glass glade (but not too expensive). The voices were well placed, they stood only in a word or two, they did not speak for themselves, they were dictated or the most beautiful - especially from the mountains, in the gorge garden, and the word 'saschi'. K. hurts what was received in this way, in the light of many then-government teams. Time (the building) is built, and a number of psychiatrists will be detained.

And...

Kafkaesque Diversion 2.0: 'The Passage'

 

All Original Images: West Leicester, February 2022

"The servant doused his lantern because here there was bright electric light. Everything here was small but daintily constructed. The best possible use was made of space. The passage was just high enough for a person to walk upright. Down the sides, the doors almost touched. The walls on either side stopped short of the ceiling; this was no doubt for ventilation purposes, because in this deep, cellar-like passage the tiny rooms presumably had no windows...

All Experiments: May 2022

"The disadvantage of these not quite complete walls was the noise in the passage and inevitably also in the rooms. Many rooms seemed to be occupied, in most the people were still awake, you heard voices, hammering, the clink of glasses...

"The voices were muffled, no more than the odd word could be made out, nor did there seem to be conversations going on, probably someone was just dictating something or reading something out, particularly from the rooms giving out the sound of glasses and dishes not a word could be heard and hammering reminded K. of something that he had been told somewhere, namely that many officials, to relax from the constant mental exertion, from time to time did a little carpentry, light engineering, that sort of thing." [1.]

[1.]: Franz Kafka, 'The Castle' (Trans. J.A. Underwood), London, Penguin, 1926/1997