Jasper Johns Little Guys for Leo

in jasper johns 1997 etching for leo castelli's 90th birthday, three stick figures holding brushes in a configuration johns has used since at least 1982 are at the bottom edge of the plate/frame, while a brushy gradient dark blue sky rises above them. at the top edge in the heavens, are the nine stars which make up the constellation leo, printed in yellow, and mostly connected by faint lines. this example is from moma
Jasper Johns, Leo from The Leo Castelli 90th Birthday Portfolio, 1997/98, etching with aquatint, 45×30 cm plate on 37 x 27 in. sheet, ed. 90+17AP+?, this one from MoMA

While looking something else up at the Philadelphia Museum, I realized I’d missed a major appearance of the three stick figures I call Jasper Johns’ little guys: they make their astronomical—or astrological—debut in a print created in 1997 for Leo Castelli’s 90th birthday.

It was published by Jean-Christophe Castelli in a portfolio, and so wasn’t printed by Johns’s two major print foundries, Gemini GEL and ULAE, so I missed it in my survey. But it does really capture the way Johns expanded the ways he put them to work in his pictures. Beyond their function in his composition and scale, they also start to imply their own narrative, whether in a picture or as its audience.

in a detail from a 1997 sketch page by jasper johns, two square panels are drawn in pencil, each with three tiny stick figures along the bottom edge, looking at the big dipper in one, and a spiral galaxy in the other, an example of johns experimenting with compositions using the stick figures. from the johns drawings catalogue raisonne D587
Detail from Untitled (D587) showing those little guys doing something new, 1997, graphite, 15 3/4 x 20 1/4 in., via JJ Drawings CR

The idea of these stick figures under a night sky seems to first appear in 1997, and it would reappear often as Johns incorporated more astronomical imagery into his work. It really does give these little guys a primordial vibe, like they were here before us all.

Of course, while the sketch above has them looking at the Big Dipper or a spiral galaxy, in Leo from the Leo…, the little guys are looking at the constellation Leo. [Or most of it; the line that forms the lion’s back is missing.] Which maybe did not matter so much; Leo Castelli, born September 4th, was a Virgo.

[next day update: on bluesky Peter Huestis points to Sketch for Leo, a 1997 work on mylar, in the National Gallery. This is not in the drawings CR, I believe, but it’s perfect. It’s described as “charcoal transfer,” which I do not understand. It is not in reverse, so it is at least one step removed from the creation of the printing plates.]

a sketch on mylar by jasper johns titled, sketch for leo 1997, has his three stick figures holding brushes in dark charcoal near the bottom edge, some reddish smudges around them, a faint horizon line above their teeny little heads, and the constellation leo picked out in faint circles and light red lines. this became the etching johns made for leo castelli's 90th birthday portfolio. it is in the collection of the national gallery of art, but not, i believe, in the artist's drawings cr, which i am certain i scoured for stick figures
Jasper Johns, “Sketch for Leo,” 1997, charcoal transfer, graphite, and red pencil on mylar, in the collection of the National Gallery from whence it cannot be downloaded.

Previously: Jasper Johns’ Little Guys
Jasper Johns’ Little Guys: Origins