Foirades/Fizzles

1976 · Books & Publications, Prints · 34.29 × 26.67 cm

Can I see it?

Not on view at present

Where is “Foirades/Fizzles” now? Collection: Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis. Not on view at present. Checked September 29, 2026.

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Minneapolis, United States

It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.

Checked: 12 days ago
In this state since: Sep 25, 2026
Source: The museum

On the map Museum page

About the work

In one of the milestones of twentieth-century artists' books, Jasper Johns and Irish writer and poet Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) join forces in the enigmatic and elegant Foirades/Fizzles. Featuring five short prose texts, or fizzles, by Beckett along with 33 original intaglio prints by Johns, the collaboration seamlessly merges Beckett's austere writing style and concept of the fragmented individual with Johns's sensual rendering s of numerals, flagstones, crosshatchings, and parts of the human body. Originally written in French, the fizzles were translated into English by Beckett for this project. Johns's imagery is based both on his repertoire of iconic motifs and from his monumental work, Untitled (1972), a four-panel painting that features fragmentary patterns that the artist observed in the streets of New York City.

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Details

Accession number: P.78.2

In the catalog

Prints Etching Contemporary art 20th century Ireland, United States

Sources

Minneapolis Institute of Art
Image: Minneapolis Institute of Art — Art © Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

In the life of Jasper Johns

The whole life

1967–1980
Artistic adviser to the Merce Cunningham Dance Company
Johns had long supported the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, helping to raise funds and attention and assisting Rauschenberg with set and costume designs in the 1950s, and from 1967 to 1980 he served as its artistic adviser.
1973–1987
A farmhouse with a glass-walled studio at Stony Point
From 1973 to 1987 Johns kept a rustic 1930s farmhouse with a glass-walled studio in Stony Point, New York.
1976
The book “Foirades/Fizzles” with Samuel Beckett
At the Atelier Crommelynck in Paris, where his intaglios were printed for Petersburg Press from 1975 to 1990, Johns collaborated with Samuel Beckett on Foirades/Fizzles, a book of five text fragments by Beckett in French and English with 33 intaglios by Johns.
24 June 1977 – 2 October 1977
Exhibition: Documenta 6

All works