Lithograph on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/jasper-johns-1365" aria-label="More by Jasper Johns" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Jasper Johns</a>
Decoy
Purchased 1980
abstraction
body
drink, beer
emotions, concepts and ideas
figure
food and drink
formal qualities
from recognisable sources
gestural
inscriptions
leg
non-representational
objects
people
photographic
product packaging
reading, writing, printed matter
symbols and personifications
tin can
vessels and containers
word
paper print lithograph
19 July 2013
19 July 2013
2013-07-19
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2013-07-19
Pablo Picasso
Collection based display
Decoy
image: 1054 × 752 mm
frame: 1095 × 799 × 23 mm
Purchased 1980
<p><b>P07380</b> DECOY 1971
<br/>
<br/>Inscribed ‘J Johns 71’ bottom right and ‘55/ 55’
<br/>Lithograph, printed and published by Universal Limited Art Editions, New York, 41 1/2×29 (105.5×75.2)
<br/>Purchased from Universal Limited Art Editions (Grant-in-Aid) 1980
<br/>Lit: op.cit., no.134 and pp.39–47 Jasper Johns Decoy: the Print and the Painting (exh. catalogue), The Emily Lowe Gallery, Hofstra University, Long Island, 1972
<br/>
<br/>'Decoy’ represents the first use by an artist of the hand-fed offset <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/lithography" title="Glossary definition for 'Lithography'"><span>lithography</span></a> press (originally bought by ULAE for proofing only). Johns took advantage of the press which enabled a faster pace of alternate trials, alterations and colour sequence changes, and also a larger number of subtle overprintings on one <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>print</span></a>. ‘Decoy’ contains reworkings of a number of images: a Ballantine ale can from ‘Painted Bronze’ 1960; the letters of the names of colours and the leg cast from ‘Passage II’ 1966 (oil on <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a>), the lithographs ‘Passage I’ and ‘II’ (op.cit., nos.57, 58), and the six images of ‘First <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/etching" title="Glossary definition for 'Etching'"><span>Etchings</span></a> (2nd State)’ 1967–9 (op.cit., nos.78–90). The leg cast and some aspects of the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/impasto" title="Glossary definition for 'Impasto'"><span>painterly</span></a> washes and colour names also relate to the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> ‘Watchman’ 1964 and the lithograph of the same title, 1967 (op.cit., no.60).
<br/>
<br/>'Decoy’ has been much discussed as Johns' most complex print, and one of his most enigmatic. It is unique in that he made a painting of the same title after the print: also, he returned to the subject to make another lithograph, ‘Decoy II’ in 1971–3 (op.cit., no.169), using the same one stone and eighteen plates as for ‘Decoy’, reworking them and adding a further seven plates.
<br/>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>The Tate Gallery 1980-82: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London 1984
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-11T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction body drink, beer emotions, concepts and ideas figure food and drink formal qualities from recognisable sources gestural inscriptions leg non-representational objects people photographic product packaging reading, writing, printed matter symbols and personifications tin can vessels and containers word