Throughout their printed works, Glenn Ligon '82, Hon. '12 and Jasper Johns demand and disrupt the act of reading. Both artists frequently discompose the visual elements of language and communication: targets drip and letters smudge. Johns and Ligon exploit the processes of printing—which entail contact and separation, mirroring and reversals—to parse the distances between signs and their meanings, and also to address the mechanics of looking on the part of the spectator. This exhibition will feature etchings and lithographs by both artists as well as screenprints by Johns in the Davison Art Collection.

Curated by the Donald T. Fallati and Ruth E. Pachman Curator of the Davison Art Collection Miya Tokumitsu.

Opening Reception: Wednesday, September 18, 2024 from 4:30pm to 6pm.

WESeminar: A Conversation with Glenn Ligon '82, Hon. '12: Friday, November 1, 2024 from 4:30pm to 5:30pm in the The Forum, Frank Center for Public Affairs, 238 Church Street, Middletown, Connecticut (adjacent to the Pruzan Art Center)

In conjunction with the exhibition “Reading Signs: Jasper Johns and Glenn Ligon in Print,” Claire Grace, Associate Professor and Program Director of Art History, and Associate Professor of American Studies, and artist Glenn Ligon '82, Hon. '12 will discuss forms of opacity, history, legibility, and reversal at stake in Ligon’s work, as well as the dialogues it stages with an earlier generation of artists, including Jasper Johns. This event is part of Wesleyan's Homecoming + Family Weekend. 

Exhibition will be closed from Friday, October 19 through Tuesday, October 22, 2024; and from Monday, November 25 through Monday, December 2, 2024.

Download the exhibition brochure with an original essay by Susan Tallman.

Read the press release for this exhibition. 

Read Pruzan Art Center to Feature Works by Jasper Johns, Glenn Ligon ’82, Hon. ’12 from Davison Art Collection in The Wesleyan Connection.