Jasper Johns' Green Angel: The Making of a Print

This special focus display at SDMA showcases a highly significant etching, Green Angel (1991), by the famed contemporary artist Jasper Johns, which the artist donated to the Museum in 2006. Featured along with the print is a complete set of 17 proofs that reveal the creative process surrounding the image, another, very recently acquired piece from the Green Angel series, Green Angel 2 (1997), and original etching plates for both prints.

Johns' Green Angel series is unique in that, unlike previous prints he has created, the artist has not revealed his source of inspiration for the more than 40 works that embody the Green Angel motif. Throughout the 1990s, the artist continued to produce works, paintings, drawings, and prints, that use the distinctive, purposefully unidentifiable form of Green Angel.

One of the most influential American artists of the last half-century, Johns is best known for taking commonplace objects and transforming them into art, as seen in his breakthrough paintings of targets, numbers, and flags. He soon turned to printmaking due to his interest in process and the medium's facilitation of experimentation.

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