Alphabet

In this painting, the familiar sequence of the alphabet from A to Z appears, but it’s anything but straightforward. While we might expect an orderly progression, the letters are embedded in a riot of color and texture. Johns made this work in 1959, a pivotal year when he introduced a vibrant palette of primary colors, augmented by touches of green, pink, orange, pale blue, gray, brown, black, and white. The surface itself is a dynamic jumble of strokes, daubs, smudges, and collaged fragments of painted paper. This animated surface scatters our gaze, challenging any sense of a simple, sequential read. It's a fascinating interplay between the systematic order of the alphabet and the expressive, gestural chaos of the brushwork and collage, forcing us to reconcile two very different visual experiences within a single frame.