Artist Keywords

William Henry Johnson

William Henry Johnson (1901 - 1970) was active/lived in District Of Columbia, South Carolina / Denmark, Norway.  William Johnson is known for Naive genre, figure, still life painting, serigraphs, drawing.

Known for distinctive modernist images of African American life, William Johnson died destitute and deranged from syphilis, having spent the last twenty-three years of his life in the Central Islip Sate Hospital on Long Island.  He stopped painting in 1956.

One of his chief sponsors and exhibitors for his art was the New York Harmon Foundation, which, in 1929, presented him the "Award for Distinguished Achievements Among Negroes in the Fine Arts Field." Most of his work was handed over to the Harmon Foundation, now defunct, by a court that deemed his works without value.  In turn the Foundation donated the work to the Smithsonian Institution, which had a retrospective of his work in 1970.

In 1997, a lawsuit was filed by his relatives claiming the Smithsonian Institution had over 1000 works on paper illegally.

Source:
Matthew Baigell, Dictionary of American Art   ...  [Displaying 929 of 11728 characters.]  Artist bio

Artist auction records

.  askART's database currently holds 43 auction lots for William Henry Johnson (of which 34 auction records sold and 1 are upcoming at auction.)

Artist artworks for sale and wanted

.  There are 0 artworks for sale on our website by galleries and art dealers . There are 8 galleries and art dealers listing works of art by William Henry Johnson as either "Wanted" or "For Sale" .

Research resources

.  askART lists William Henry Johnson in 2 of its research Essays. William Henry Johnson has 10 artist signature examples available in our database.

Similar artists

.  There are 24 similar (related) artists for William Henry Johnson available:    Charles Henry Alston,  Aaron Douglas,  Elizabeth Catlett,  Henry Ossawa Tanner,  Norman Wilfred Lewis,  Lois Mailou Jones,  Edward Mitchell Bannister,  Charles Porter,  Chauncey Ives,  Robert Gwathmey,  Morris Graves,  Richard William Hubbard,  Stuart Davis,  Irene Rice Pereira,  Blanche (Nettie Blanche) Lazzell,  Walter Tandy Murch,  Ben Shahn,  Levi Wells Prentice,  Joseph Floch,  George Benjamin Luks,  Fairfield Porter,  Philip Howard (Blashki) Evergood,  Gilbert Gaul,  Harry Roseland