Jasper Johns, and a technique he loved
In the summer of 2010, Jennifer Roberts agreed to create an experimental course for Harvard College students around a piece in the Harvard Art Museums’ collection, and to explore the potential for a small show. In the end, those efforts led to a full-fledged exhibition at the Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, developed in tandem with museum officials and four committed undergraduates, that sheds light on the works of one of America’s master contemporary artists. “Jasper Johns / In Press: The Crosshatch Works and the Logic of Print,” which opened Tuesday at the Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, focuses on the artist’s distinctive crosshatch technique of intersecting lines and the importance of the print medium in his work. Roberts developed the course as a tutorial, with small seminars that allow for intimate and incisive conversations with students. She and her student team, all juniors with concentrations in the history of art...