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Roman Johnson (1917-2005)
Oil on Canvas
18 x 14 inches
22 x 20 18 inches
Fine condition
Signed Roman en verso
Huettl’s Art Studio label en verso – 1500 E. 57th St (Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago)
Chicago origin
“Roman Johnson (1917-2005): He was known for social-justice paintings, portraits (including one of his beloved wife, Iona) and a rascally personally. Except for 10 years in New York, he was a lifelong Columbus resident.”
Source: “The 17 ‘Roots and Legacies’ artists.” Columbus Dispatch. 25 Nov. 2007. Web. 7 Dec. 2011.
Roman Johnson was involved in the field of Fine Arts for more than 35 years. Roman studied with Cletus Butler, Emerson Burkhart, and Edwin Dickerson. Mr. Johnson spent a year painting in Paris and five years at the New York Art League. While in New York he served as Art Instructor for the American Red Cross and Veteran’s Administration teaching and sketching convalescent service men. Source: Columbus State University
Local artist Roman Johnson’s standing growing after death
Randy Ludlow, The Columbus Dispatch
Nearly a decade after his death, Roman Johnsons brushstrokes remain vibrant, his paintings documenting the street scenes and people of Old Towne East and the King-Lincoln district. Long known principally as the understudy of famed Columbus artist Emerson Burkhart, Johnsons paintings are emerging amid growing appreciation of their realistic reflection of life and culture in black neighborhoods. To close out Black History Month, the Ohio History Connection, formerly the Ohio Historical Society, celebrated the acquisition of its first painting by Johnson with a lecture yesterday about the man who learned to draw as a sickly child confined to bed. STORY FROM BRISTOL MYERS SQUIBB More options for earlier stages of certain cancers The 1987 oil painting portrays an unusual house that once stood near Woodland Avenue on the East Side, one that so struck Johnson that he painted it more than once. Passers-by might not have given the house much notice. But it comes alive with the layers, colors and complexity of Johnsons canvas. STORY FROM CHASE How to shop on a student budget for the holidays Johnson was struck by the lack of art about, and by, blacks and would sit on Columbus streets with his canvases, brushes and oils to document what struck him as worthy of capturing. I do paintings in an effort to enhance or continue the culture of black people. In the 40s and 50s, when I visited the Museum of Modern Art (in New York City), I never saw any art by or about blacks, said Johnson, who died in 2005 at age 88. Now, Johnsons paintings, from slices of everyday life to portraits and a haunting series he produced on hunger and starvation, are prized by both private collectors and museums such as the Columbus Museum of Art. Hes just not Emerson Burkharts protege anymore, said History Connection art curator Emily Lang. Hes starting to get recognized as a great artist in his own right. Mentor and protege were an odd pairing. Johnson approached Burkhart when he saw a white man painting in what was then a more racially diverse neighborhood. Burkhart dismissed Johnson at first, then agreed to teach him. One of Burkharts most-celebrated paintings, in fact, is an earnest portrait of Johnson that took 45 sittings. EntitledThe Confused Process of Becoming, it is in the collection of the Columbus museum. The pupil ultimately became artist, going on to paint and study in the 1940s in New York City and Paris while writing a letter every day to his wife, who remained in Columbus. He returned home to Columbus after 11 years to produce more paintings, often frugally using both sides of a canvas, while teaching generations of painters. He also began to delve into social themes such as starvation in Africa. Johnson perhaps was not a bigger name outside Columbus, Lang said, because unlike his mentor, he was not long on self-promotion, preferring his art to stand on its own merits. He was immensely, immensely talented, but he never sold himself, she said. Marilyn Hood, an Upper Arlington art lover who would describe her age only as senior citizen, once met Johnson and appreciates his work. There was an artistic quality he brought to Columbus streets, Hood said after yesterdays lecture. The fact he was a black man who forged his own way shows in his honest depictions.