biographie de William Henry JOHNSON (1901-1970)

Birth place: Florence, SC

Death place: Long Island, NY

Addresses: NYC

Profession: Painter, block printer, teacher

Studied: NAD with Hawthorne, 1921-26; Cape Cod Sch. Art, Provincetown, MA, summer school

Exhibited: Paris, France, 1927; Nice, 1928-29; Int. House, NYC, 1930 (Harmon Foundation gold medal); Florence, SC, 1930; Marquette, MI, 1930; Copenhagen, 1931-33; Esbjerg & Auhus, Denmark, 1934; Oslo, 1935, Volda, 1936, Aalesund, 1936, Tromsoe, 1938, all Norway; Artists Gal., NYC, 1939 (solo); Trondhjem Mus., Norway, 1937; Harmon College Art Traveling Exh., 1934-35; Harmon Traveling Exh., 1935-36; Texas Centennial, 1936; Am. Negro Expo., Chicago, 1940; Harlem AC, 1940, Alma Reed Gal.,1941, Wakefield Gal., 1943-44, Marquette Gal., 1944, Public Lib., 1946, all NYC; Copenhagen, 1947 (large solo); Howard Univ.; Fisk Univ.; Morgan State College; Smithonian Inst.; Spelman College; Phila. Civic Center; James A. Porter Gal., 1970; State Armory, Wilmington, DE, 1971; Tuskegee Inst., 1971; NMAA, 1971 (retrospective).

Member: Un. Am. Artists

Work: NMAA (largest collection); Howard Univ. AG, Wash, DC; Nat. Mus., Stockholm; Montclair AM, 1998 (solo)

Comments: An important African-American modernist painter who moved to Harlem in 1918. After studying at the NAD, he studied in Paris, 1926-29, on a scholarship provided by C.W. Hawthorne through the Harmon Fndtn. He returned to NYC, 1930, but soon after went back to Europe, where he married Danish designer Holka Krake. The two settled in Kerteminde, Denmark, making trips to Norway and North Africa before coming back to NYC in 1938. While abroad, Johnson had worked primarily in an expressionist style; but on returning to the U.S. he focused his efforts on exploring African-American subject matter, employing expressionist and neo-primitive devices in religious, prison, war, and farm scenes. Johnson contracted paresis, a degenerative brain disease brought on by untreated syphilis. In 1947, he was committed to a mental institution where he died many years later. A controversy over his estate continued to fester into 1999. Positions: teacher, Harlem AC, NYC; associated with WPA, 1939-43.

Sources: WW40; Baigell, Dictionary; Cederholm, Afro-American Artists; exh. cat., M. Rosenfeld Gal, NYC, 1995; biography by Turner & Daily, William H. Johnson: Truth Be Told (1998); M.G. Lord, "Wrangle over a Rediscovered Artist," NY Times, Jan. 3, 1999, p.34