William johnson biography artist hardy
William H. Johnson - National Gallery of Art!
William johnson biography artist hardy
How Painting Portraits of Freedom Fighters Became William H. Johnson’s Life’s Work
Shantay Robinson
Museum Correspondent
The early 20th century produced an audaciously talented but tragic figure in the painter William H.
Johnson. From his very humble beginnings in the Jim Crow South, he worked to fulfill his dreams in Harlem before meeting his devastating demise in Europe. Though several solo exhibitions celebrated his work before his death in 1970 and in the following decades, the current show at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM)—“Fighters for Freedom: William H.
Johnson Picturing Justice”—presents Johnson’s ambitious work to a new generation.
The curator of the exhibition, Virginia Mecklenburg, says Johnson’s legacy is “recognized within a community of people who know and collect work by African American artists.
He’s a rock star for them. What the goal is, is to have him be a rock star artist for everybody else.”
Johnson was born in Florence, South Carol