JASPER JOHNS (b. 1930)

The term Usuyuki in Japanese means "light snow" and is used when referring to something ephemeral or fleeting. It is also the title of a Kabuki (Japanese opera) love story which occurs in the cherry blossom season. Johns adopted the term when working on a group of works in the early 1980s which exhibit both the characteristics of snow's transience, as well as displaying a delicate feminine palette. Several of Johns' recurring devices can be traced in this work: his use of grids and repetitive crosshatching creates an underlying geometric structure; the use of layered opaque and translucent strips disrupts the surface and any visual anchor the eye tries to establish; and finally the juxtaposition of fragments to the whole each suggest a myriad of possible meanings.