William H. Johnson
William H. Johnson
For the visual aesthetic of one of our upcoming projects, Rauch Bros. is looking at the work of William H. Johnson.
Born in Florence, South Carolina in 1901, Johnson took off for Harlem in 1918 and immediately became involved in the community of artists that was beginning to bloom at that time. He was a painter of African American life and chronicled the excitement of Harlem, the experience of blacks fighting in WWII, the struggle of sharecroppers, the power of great leaders and the dignity of ordinary lives. Some of my favorite paintings of his (see Mount Calvary and Swing Low, Sweet Chariot below) put a new face on Christian traditions.
His personal history has heavy doses of tragedy: the death of his wife, wandering through Europe with all of his paintings tied to a cart, sleeping under bridges and mental illness. Much of his work has been lost or damaged because of this complicated history, his career cut relatively short, and his final years were spent in an institution. He died in 1970. Fisk University holds a great deal of his work and a major retrospective was organized by the National Museum of American Art in 1991.
I am a huge fan of his bright colors, strong, playful compositions and knack for personalities. If we can squeeze even a drop of Johnson into our work, I’d be thrilled.
Chain Gang, 1939
Jitterbugs, 1940-41
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot 1944
Li'l Sis, 1944
Mount Calvary, 1944
Moon Over Harlem, 1943-44
Underground Railroad, 1945
