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NOTES ON INTERVIEW WITH JILL WILLIAM H. JOHNSON AND MRS. JOHNSON

He went to Europe through private scholarship of Charles W. Hawthorne. There is more private buying of art in Europe than in America; they are in closer contact with the actuality of art in general in Europe, music as well as painting. Here you are taken up with material things. In Denmark more individuals as well as governments and institutions buy original works of art.

Mr. Johnson is anxious to paint American colored people.

He has a portrait hung in the Trondhjem Museum in Norway, a portrait of an old man who wanted his portrait done in the modern manner. He had been an important man in the town so the museum bought his portrait.

Johnson first went to Paris in Europe, then to the south of France and spent a summer in Corsica, where he was fascinated by the intense blue of the water, the reddish mountains, and the marvelous vegetation.

He went to Denmark in 1930 where he had successful exhibits. The finest museum in Copenhagen exhibited his work.

He went from Denmark on a study trip through Germany, Belgium, and France to Tunis in Africa. The contrast between Europe and Africa is just as great as between America and Europe. Extreme simplicity and quietness in production, peaceful way of living.  Johnson has a particularly strong color sense. Africa is a symphony in color. The people use it naturally; Arabs are known for not taking anything literally, everything is decorated, wonderful light over everything. America is very much black and gray; Africa is extreme coloring - red and blue. Because he looked an Arab, Johnson was welcomed into the Arab homes, lived in old part of the capitol of Tunis, biggest part Arab, Guk. He painted watercolors in Africa and colored woodcuts. These were shown at the Artists' Gallery.

He painted the portrait of a young Danish poet, a man who had had his ups and downs from being a child prodigy. For other painters, painting a portrait is the equivalent of a camera photograph, showing his physical characteristics at one particular moment. But in painting this picture of the poet, Johnson tried to show his conception of all his varying moods and genius, to paint all the different things that make him as we know him, the whole atmosphere, life and experience that make him so - is what interested Johnson.

Real art is many years ahead of its time.