Jasper Johns

Drawings and prints spanning six decades exploring Johns's methods of copying, tracing, and replicating images through body imprints, translucent overlays, and variants of his own work.

Why go

The exhibition isolates a crucial but underexamined throughline in Johns's practice—how copying and tracing function as both technical process and philosophical inquiry into meaning-making. Works range from intimate body prints (the 1962 Study for Skin series from the Art Institute of Chicago) to tracings of Old Masters and photojournalism, reveali

What to expect

Drawings and prints from the 1960s through 2010s, including body imprints made with oil and charcoal, works traced onto Mylar, and variants of Johns's own paintings. Key loans from museums and private collections, plus works from the artist's personal archive. Predominantly black-and-white, with rare color works like the 2015 monotype.

Things to know

• Four major drawings on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago: Study for Skin I–IV (1962), newly acquired in 2025.
• Exhibition organized by independent curator Jeffrey Weiss, who wrote a new scholarly essay accompanying the show.
• Works span from the 1960s to 2013, tracing Johns's evolving engagement with process and replication.
• Johns has used body imprints, Mylar tracings, and variants of his own paintings as core methods since the early 1960s.
• The exhibition includes tracings of works by Cézanne, Holbein, Picasso, and Grünewald, as well as photographs by Deakin and Burrows.
• Opening reception Thursday, May 7, 6–8 PM.

Plan your visit

Gallery hours: Tuesday–Thursday, Saturday, 10 AM–6 PM. Closed Sunday, Monday, Friday. Located at 537 West 20th Street, New York.