Robert Johnson

It is difficult to name a single "most famous" work by Robert Johnson, as his output was varied. Between 1955 and 1959, Johnson created what he termed "combines". These works defied easy categorisation, existing somewhere between painting and sculpture. He incorporated everyday objects; examples include a stuffed goat, a bed, or tyres. These "combines" demonstrate Johnson's experimental approach to materials. Earlier, Johnson experimented with photographic blueprints between 1949 and 1951. In 1951, he had his first solo exhibition at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York. Around the same time, in 1951-52, he produced all-black and all-white paintings. In 1953, he began a series of all-red paintings. One such work, Red Painting (1953), features a layered surface of newspaper and cloth covered in shades of red paint. Johnson also erased a de Kooning drawing in 1953, a gesture that has become well known. He designed sets and costumes for Merce Cunningham's dance company and for Paul Taylor.

Robert Johnson's prints are usually sold as limited editions. The artist determines the number of prints in an edition, not the medium. Most printmakers limit their editions. The edition number is written on the bottom left margin of the print, in pencil, as a fraction; the print's individual number above the total edition size (for example, 12/25 means it is the twelfth print of 25). The print's title is written in the centre, and the artist's signature on the right. Some artists also create a separate set of 'artist's proofs', typically ten percent of the edition, marked 'AP' after the numbering. The Professional Art Dealers Association of Canada defines an original print as conceived and executed solely as a print, usually in a numbered edition, and signed by the artist. Each print is individually inked and pulled; it is a multi-original medium. The numbering accounts for the number of prints in the edition.

Robert Johnson uses artist-quality oil paints. For painting surfaces, he uses gessoed MDF, primed canvas stuck to MDF board, and primed canvas. He favours cotton canvas with a fine weave, primed with three coats of acrylic gesso primer. Johnson finds it rewarding to prime and stretch his own canvases, as it guarantees the quality he wants and focuses his thoughts before painting. Johnson uses filberts and flats, ranging from small to large hog hair brushes. He avoids synthetic brushes because they lack the springy resistance of hog hair against the canvas. He prefers well-worn hog hair brushes, as their bluntness allows a broader use of oil paint and prevents excessively edgy marks.

To view works similar to Robert Johnson's, you might visit museums with significant Art Deco collections. Several institutions in the United States hold relevant pieces, including the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, Florida; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Minneapolis Institute of Arts; the Museum of Modern Art, also in New York; the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond; and the Wolfsonian at Florida International University in Miami Beach. In Canada, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto may have relevant holdings. In the United Kingdom, consider the Bakelite Museum in Williton; the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery; the Geffrye Museum in London; the Manchester Art Gallery; the National Museums of Scotland, Royal Museum, in Edinburgh; and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

Robert Johnson was a blues musician. It is difficult to isolate the work of particular artists when considering formative influences between art forms, since these typically affect whole groups and generations working in different media. The effects of jazz and blues are tied to distinct aesthetics. Artists interested in African art made a connection between these art forms and jazz music in terms of the impulses they sought. Others, concerned with modernism and urbanity, interpreted the sounds of jazz music as analogous to their experience of the modern city. The painter Joan Mitchell stated that she "tried to take from everybody". The arrangement of images in her mind responded to the needs of her art. Ingres, for instance, briefly meant something to her because de Kooning had drawn upon Ingres' work, and she upon that of de Kooning. More important to her were the paintings of Kandinsky, Matisse, Mondrian, Gorky, and de Kooning himself. She was also inspired by Bach and blues musician Snooky Pryor. Jackson Pollock was fond of jazz and would listen to it while working. Parallels have been drawn between the colour, pattern, and spontaneity of his paintings and jazz improvisation.

William H. Johnson (1901-1970) was an African American artist. Born in Florence, South Carolina, he demonstrated an early interest in art. Johnson moved to New York City, and then later to Europe, to develop his skills as a painter. During the 1930s, Johnson worked in an Expressionist style. These pictures employed curving lines to distort the image. This approach did not find an audience in Europe, so he went back to the United States, but success eluded him there too. Johnson returned to Europe and developed a new, so-called "primitive" style. These works used brighter colours and appeared flatter, with less three-dimensional depth than his earlier paintings. He may have been influenced by folk art, especially the colourful quilts made by African American women. After another move to New York, and then briefly to South Carolina, Johnson adopted this style to depict the history and culture of African Americans. Many of his pictures portray Southern life. Despite the quality of his output, Johnson did not receive much public recognition during his lifetime. Recognition came just before his death when, in 1966, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., agreed to house his entire life’s work.