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WILLIAM H. JOHNSON Events in His Art Career Born - Florence, S.C. in 1901 1921-1926 - Studied at National Academy of Design 1926 (Winter) - Studied and painted Paris (Portraits and Still Life) 1927 - Moret-sur-Loing, France (Landscape painting) 1928 - Cagnes-sur-Mer, France (Landscape painting) 1929 - Met Danish artist Holcha Krake at Cagnes; traveled to Corsica; Nice, France; Belgium; Esborg and Odense, Denmark 1929 - December, to New York; received Harmon Gold Award in Fine Arts 1930 - Florence, S.C. home Kerteminde, Denmark - Married Holcha Krake 1930-1932 - Lived and worked in fishing village, Kerteminde 1933 - Germany (Hamburg and Cologne) Paris, France Tunisia (Kairwan; Sousse; Hammamet; Nabeul) 1933 - France, (Martique) Denmark, (Kerteminde) 1934 - Across Jutland by bicycle, also to Esbjerg and Aarhus, Denmark 1935 - Oslo, Norway (Met Pola Gauguin; Edward Munch) Lillehammer, Norway 1936 - Jolster, Norway; also Sunnfiord and Volda - by bicycle 1937 1938 - Spring, took boat from Aalesund to Tromsoe and back to Svolvaer, Lofoten Islands then from Norway to Stockholm, Gaevle and Vaesteras, Sweden To Norway (Oslo) To Denmark (Kerteminde and Copenhagen) 1938 - Fall - to New York 1943 - Holcha Kraka Johnson died in New York 1944 - Florence, S.C. home 1946 - Return to Denmark 1947 - Return to New York and hospitalization EXHIBITS 1927 Paris; 1928-29 Nice; 1930-31-33 Harmon Foundation in New York and traveling; 1930 Florence, S.C. and Marquette, Mich.; 1931 & 1933 Copenhangen & Odense, Denmark; 1934 Esbjerg & Aarhus, Denmark; 1935 Oslo, Norway; 1936 Volda & Aalesund, Norway; 1937 Trondheim, Norway; 1938 Tromsoe, Norway and Stockholm & Gaevle, Sweden; 1939 New York - Artists' Gallery; 1940 Harle Art Center; 1941 Alma Reed Gallery; 1943 & 1944 Wakefield Gallery; Marquie Gallery; 1946 N.Y. Public Library, 135th Street Branch; 1947 Denmark (Copenhagen) 1956 - Retrospective Exhibits. Included in 20 collections abroad; Work in National Museum, Stockholm; Gaevle Museum (Sweden); Trondheim Museum (Norway), and others. Harmon Foundation 140 Nassau Street New York 38, N.Y. [[image]] Norway, where Holcha wove her tapestry, "Willie" painted As he left, he seemed very strange to those who had known him. He exhibited these historical and political panels in Copenhagen in March of 1947--his last exhibit. "There is quite a bit of Matisse's worship of unrestricted colors in his pictures," said a critic of them. "But where Matisse is an aesthetician, Johnson goes further and shows us the working people of the southern states, the Negroes and their leaders, and their entire strangely colorful world... To William Johnson, social freedom is the greatest and most important need of mankind; for this reason he considers his series of paintings, Fighters for Liberty as some of his most important productions. His colors span the whole gamut of the palette, and the decorativeness of his pictures is enhanced by his use of ornaments and of his use and placement of the figures, which in many cases can be seen to have ben influenced by Italian Gothic and primitive art." His Talent Is Shaped By World Impulses He has been called expressionistic in the vein of Van Gogh; in the matter of form, much that looks like "undigested Van Gogh"; "hot Van Gogh"; influenced by Van Gogh; and derivative of Cezanne, Soutaine, Rouault, Rockwell Kent, Munch, and others, but there is always the qualification of his own strong sophisticated yet primitive touch added. No critic discounts that his is a real talent shaped and molded by world-wide impulses. Johnson, whose peculiar actions had been noted by those close to [[image]] him for some years, became mentally incompetent soon after his last exhibit in Denmark in 1947, and he was cared for temporarily over there. Later that year he was sent back to this country and permanently hospitalized, incurably insane. Finally in the Spring of 1956, his hundreds of art productions in a motley collection of boxes and crates in which they had been packed abroad and kept in storage here for nine years, were legally turned over to the Harmon Foundation. They have been re-stretched, matted and framed and prepared for public viewing. Johnson's simplicity stands out in everything he did. He never pretended to be anything but a simple man from a simple background, a primitive as he called himself. He was proud. He had that poise which comes to simple people from inner grace. Even though his broader recognition in this country may come too late for him to enjoy, he has left many creative works that not only give esthetic enjoyment, but inspire spirits to help themselves follow their creative star.
