William Henry Johnson

William Henry Johnson was one of the most pivotal African American artists in the 20th century. While his work traversed artistic styles such as Fauvism and German Expressionism, he is best known for an intentionally naïve style drawn from primitivism and folk art. During his travels throughout Europe and North Africa, Johnson created landscapes in the expressionist style as seen in Jølster (1936). After returning to New York, he abandoned the modern European style of painting in favor of a folk art aesthetic of reduced forms and bright colors. In his paintings and his works on paper such as Jitterbugs II. (circa 1941–42) and Homesteaders (ca. 1942), Johnson depicts multiplicity of the Black experience. He studied at the National Academy of Design in New York and worked for artist Charles Webster Hawthorne before studying in Europe. His work is in museum collections including Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art.