Country Portrait — Green
Lester Johnson
Description
March 28, 2009
Lester Johnson arrived in New York in 1947, during the heyday of Abstract Expressionism. After early experiments with purely abstract “action painting,” however, Johnson became one of the few members of the Eighth Street Club—which also included Franz Kline, Adolph Gottlieb, and Joan Mitchell, all of whose work is on view nearby—to actively pursue figurative painting. Johnson’s goal was to bring the gestural energy of Abstract Expressionism to his explorations of the human figure. One story traces Johnson’s turn to figurative painting to a 1948 encounter with the work of Alberto Giacometti; others suggest it was born out of the human suffering visible from the artist’s second floor studio in the Bowery, New York’s infamous “skid row.” Whatever the origin of this shift, Johnson’s paintings of the late 1950s and early 1960s—with their often solitary figures, heavily worked surfaces, and brooding palettes—reflect not only a dynamic engagement with the act of painting but an abiding concern for the human condition.
Subject Matter:
One of a number of figurative pieces produced by Johnson, who while using expressionist techniques, was one of few artists depicting figurative subjects during a pro-Abstract Expressionist period. Gestural but representational, this work nonetheless contains many of the characteristics of Abstract Expressionism, especially the thick application of paint and the sense of the artist’s hand in the creation of the work.
Physical Description:
Bust-length portrait of figure in black on green background using thickly applied paint.
Usage Rights:
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