In good overall condition.
Signed and dated lower right; edition numbered lower left.
There is minor undulation to the margins on all four sides.
A small brown spot is present to the upper area.

Publisher: Rrose Sélavy (Shuzo Takiguchi), Tokyo



The title of this work incorporates the name of a piece by Marcel Duchamp. Johns published a review praising Duchamp when he was thirty years old, and Duchamp is one of the artists who had a significant influence on him. In a three-dimensional work from 1961, in which Sculp-metal (a synthetic material intended for amateur sculptors) was applied over plaster, the piece featured a pair of glasses containing an open mouth and a closed mouth. In this print, however, these are replaced by the single word "mouth" alone, resulting in a work of greater suggestiveness. The publisher was Shuzo Takiguchi, a leading art critic of modern Japan.