St. Louis is about to see familiar signs in a brand-new way. Signs Under Pressure: Jasper Johns Lithographs opens November 6, 2026, at the Saint Louis Art Museum in Forest Park and runs through May 16, 2027, celebrating one of the most inventive printmakers in American art.
In 1954, Jasper Johns painted an American flag he had seen in a dream. Maps, targets and numbers soon followed, and those everyday signs became images he returned to again and again. When he began making prints in 1960, lithography gave him fresh ways to transform them through transfer, ink and pressure.
The exhibition presents a selection of Johns’s lithographs from the 1960s and 1970s, the period when he first worked seriously in print. Visitors will find layering, reversal and mirroring at play in works such as Decoy, from 1971, printed from 18 aluminum plates and one stone, and Corpse and Mirror, from 1976, printed from 12 aluminum plates. Through those transformations, everyday signs become harder to pin down and more delightful to study up close.
Curated by Clare Kobasa, associate curator of prints, drawings and photographs, and Melissa Venator, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Assistant Curator of Modern Art, the show is a joyful invitation to slow down, look twice and rediscover signs you thought you knew.
Photo: Saint Louis Art Museum
