Artwork
Untitled
Untitled is a gouache drawing by Jonathan Herder. It dates from 1996 and is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
About this work
Overview
This 1996 drawing by Jonathan Herder combines multiple media—including pencil, ink, gouache, and postage stamps—on notebook paper.
This 1996 drawing by Jonathan Herder combines multiple media—including pencil, ink, gouache, and postage stamps—on notebook paper. The composition is densely layered with handwritten text, doodles, arrows, and cut-out printed elements. Its chaotic arrangement suggests a spontaneous, stream-of-consciousness approach, resisting conventional structure while embracing visual and textual fragmentation.
Subject & Meaning
At the center lies a stylized male face, surrounded by fragmented phrases and symbols that resist clear interpretation. The inclusion of postage stamps and printed text hints at themes of communication, displacement, or memory. The disjointed language and layered imagery evoke internal monologue or the accumulation of fleeting thoughts, rather than narrative coherence.
Technique & Style
Herder employs a mixed-media approach, layering gouache and colored inks over pencil and ballpoint pen lines. Cut-and-pasted paper elements introduce texture and found imagery, while vibrant hues—reds, blues, yellows—create visual rhythm. The work’s immediacy reflects a process-driven aesthetic, prioritizing gesture and accumulation over polished finish.
History & Provenance
Created in 1996, the work entered the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, where it is cataloged as a drawing despite its collage elements. Its acquisition reflects the institution’s interest in post-1960s experimental practices that blur boundaries between drawing, collage, and writing. No prior exhibition or ownership history is publicly documented.
Context
The piece aligns with late 20th-century tendencies in American art that valorized the raw, the personal, and the textual. It echoes the diaristic works of artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and the textual experiments of Robert Rauschenberg, while its use of everyday materials reflects a broader interest in the aesthetics of the mundane.
Legacy
Untitled contributes to an expanded understanding of drawing as a site for linguistic and visual experimentation. Its inclusion in MoMA’s collection affirms the legitimacy of informal, process-based works within institutional frameworks. It remains a quiet example of how personal notation can become public artifact.
Artist & collection
