Three Great Abolitionists: A. Lincoln, F. Douglass, J. Brown, c. 1945. The onetime expressionist saw his stark new style as “not a change but a development.” Smithsonian American Art Museum ...

director of Spartanburg’s Johnson Collection (no relation), where some of the artist’s work resides. But before William H. Johnson traversed the streets of New York, Paris or Copenhagen ...

Keara Teeter Keara Teeter treating William H. Johnson’s "Historical Scene with Mary McLeod Bethune," ca. 1945, oil on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation.

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation, 1967.59.1146 The early 20th century produced an audaciously talented but tragic figure in the painter William H. Johnson.

SAAM educator Phoebe Hillemann reflects on creating resources to spark curiosity for learners of all ages who view William H. Johnson’s “Fighters for Freedom” series Phoebe Hilleman William H.

A native of Florence, William H. Johnson traveled thousands of miles for his art. Born into poverty in 1901, Johnson headed to New York at 17 to study art. He worked multiple jobs to pay tuition ...

William Henry Johnson, a celebrated African American artist who was born in Florence, S.C., in 1901, must have been feeling all kinds of pressure in 1943 when he began painting "Moon Over Harlem." ...

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery is presenting Bienvenue: African American Artists in France, a historical survey of seventeen Black American artists who lived and worked in France from the late nineteenth ...

Note to editors: Selected high-resolution images for publicity only are available through the museum’s Dropbox account. Email [email protected] to request the link.

A small but vibrant collection of paintings on Phoenix Art Museum’s upper level is worth a peek before it’s gone. Rare paintings by William H. Johnson (1901-1970), an essential figure in ...