Dimensions: 1047 x 749 mm. 41 1/4 x 29 1/2 in.
Reference: ULAE 98.
Signature: Signed in pencil lower right, numbered in pencil lower left "48/55".
Edition: 55, published by Universal Limited Art Editions.
Impression: Excellent.
Condition: Excellent.

Universal Limited Art Editions (ULAE), founded by Tatyana and Maurice Grossman, is credited with the American revival of fine art lithography in the mid-20th century, attracting the best young artists to explore lithography at their home studio on Long Island. In 1969 an offset press was acquired, and this press was soon employed to print an edition of Johns's Decoy.

Decoy is complicated: Johns used 18 plates, with layers of photographic transfers and brushwork, including lettering, the reproduction of a body part, and a section of an ale can. The large offset proofing press made drawing on the plate easier, but it still functioned as lithography.

The involved technique is echoed by the subject matter. Decoy integrates photographic and painterly imagery, an intricate network of layers and surfaces, representation and reproduction, all conveying a sense of hidden significance and irony that characterize Johns, like the ale can, a symbol that repeats in Johns's work. Allusions in the work are bound together with a group of semi-connected ideas and unclear meaning.

One of the artist's best known graphic works.

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