The Critic Smiles, from Lead Reliefs

Jasper Johns began experimenting with cast molds into his work in the early 1950s, in works like Target with Plaster Casts from 1955. Johns was influenced by Robert Rauschenberg—whose experimental combines melded art and object, and both artists were deeply influenced by Marcel Duchamp’s ready-mades. Johns’ Lead Reliefs expands the idea of the ready-made, transforming the familiar image into tangible objects.

Johns collaborated with Kenneth Tyler at Gemini, G.E.L. studio to produce this series through a complicated process of metal embossment. Johns cast the primary mold, which was then rolled with a very thin layer of sheet lead to form the relief. Each relief was signed by the artist with an electric steel stylus and lastly, framed to specification in a Plexiglas box frame with welded aluminum. Together, the Lead Reliefs read as a frieze of symbols of modern life.

In The Critic Smiles, Johns returns to his motif of representing the critic as a toothbrush, a comment on his own experience with critics and their lack of perceptivity. He first explored this theme in 1959, also using Sculpt-metal. Johns cleverly transforms a toothbrush with a set of molars instead of bristles. The title is stamped into the work, like a pronouncement; the critic smiles with polished teeth, while planning his critical "bite". In the lead relief version, Johns incorporates tin and gold relief to the surface to articulate the toothbrush and teeth.