Sargent Johnson

Artist

• Born: October 7, 1888
• Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts
• Died: October 10, 1967
• Place of death: San Francisco, California

Johnson was an award-winning painter and sculptor who strove to represent the black experience through art. He is considered one of the greatest artists in the history of San Francisco, and he was an integral part of the Bohemian, New Negro, and Harlem Renaissance art movements.

Early Life

Sargent Claude Johnson was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 7, 1888, the third of six children to Anderson Johnson and Lizzie Jackson. His father was Swedish, and his mother was of Cherokee Indian and African descent. Although some of his siblings lived as European Americans and Native Americans, Johnson chose to identify himself as African American.

Johnson was orphaned at the age of fourteen. In subsequent years, he and his siblings lived with an uncle named Sherman William Jackson in Washington, D.C. Jackson’s wife, famed sculptress May Howard Jackson, had a great impact on Johnson’s life. Not only did she influence his own work, but she also inspired him to become an artist. Even after Johnson was sent to live with his grandparents, he continued to explore the arts. He studied music and mechanical drawing while in Worchester, Massachusetts, and even attended night school to increase his artistic knowledge. After briefly living with relatives in Chicago who, according to Johnson, “thought all artists were drunkards,” he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1915. That same year, he experienced the groundbreaking Panama Pacific International Exposition, a fair that showcased European modern art and influenced the California art movement.

That same year, Johnson married Pearl Lawson. She was of English and black French Creole heritage and was often described as bourgeois. The couple had a daughter, Pearl Adele, in 1923. Johnson’s daughter would serve as the inspiration for Pearl (c. 1932), a porcelain figure for which Johnson won the Robert C. Ogden Prize in 1933.

Life’s Work

In spite of his success, Johnson lived modestly. Early in his career, Johnson worked a series of jobs to support his intermittent study of drawing and painting at A. W. Best School of Art. Also during this period, Johnson enrolled in the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute), where he studied under sculptors Ralph Stackpole and Beniamino Bufano. In 1921 and 1922, Johnson won first prize for his work at this school.

In 1925, Johnson’s work in a local art exhibit garnered the attention of an art critic for The San Francisco Chronicle. That same year, he became involved with the Harmon Foundation, an art-patronage group. The Harmon Foundation solidified Johnson’s international reputation. From 1926 to 1935, Johnson’s work was showcased in the group’s national exhibits and pictured in its catalogs. He also won numerous awards, including 1927’s Otto H. Kahn Prize and 1929’s Harmon bronze medal.

Johnson’s tenure with the Harmon Foundation also marked his stylistic peak. During this time, Johnson personified the artistic values of the Harlem Renaissance. Head of a Boy (c. 1931), Mother and Child (1934), and the terra-cotta works of Chester (1931) and Standing Figure (1934) are among his strongest works from this period. In 1935, the Harmon Foundation unveiled Forever Free (1933), a polychrome sculpture derived from Johnson’s drawing Defiant and considered one of the greatest works of his career.

In 1932, Johnson was elected to the San Francisco Art Association, and in 1934, he was appointed to its council. Also in the 1930’s, fellow artist Hilaire Hiler recommended him to the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project (FAP). In the FAP, he held several supervisory positions and produced some of his largest work. His first project was redwood panels for the California School for the Blind in 1937. He later produced Sea Forms (1939) for the San Francisco Maritime Museum of Aquatic Park, and Incas (1939) for the Court of Pacifica at the Golden Gate International Exhibition of 1939. However, the George Washington High School frieze (1940) would receive the most press when Johnson was selected for the commission over Bufano, an event that led to the end of their friendship. Notably, Johnson’s conceptual designs for his FAP works were never rejected—a testimony to his proficiency. Regardless of some public censorship, Johnson favored the FAP because it enabled him to experiment with new materials and express himself on a large scale.

Johnson was devoted to his craft and even taught a workshop for the San Francisco Housing Authority in 1947. That same year, he taught sculpture at Mills College in Oakland, California. From 1945 to 1965, private sponsorships afforded him the opportunity to make frequent trips to Mexico, which resulted in a series of sculptures of small animal and abstract works. In 1958, Johnson took an extended trip to Japan to study the country’s shrines, art, and culture. He suffered a heart attack and died on October 10, 1967, after a long struggle with heart problems.

Significance

Johnson is one of California’s most celebrated artists. Aside from his work in sculpture, he also was accomplished in oils, watercolors, printmaking, and graphics. He taught sculpture and mentored several private students throughout his career. In 1940, he became interested in lithographs when 150 copies of his Singing Saints (1940) were created and sold to museums and collectors. Throughout his career, he demonstrated great skill and innovation in a range of media.

Bibliography

LeFalle-Collins, Lizzetta, and Judith Wilson. Sargent Johnson: African American Modernist. San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1998. A survey of Johnson’s career that documents his exploration of African American identity, highlighting his range and influences.

Moure, Nancy Dustin Wall. “World War I and the Boom of the Twenties.” In California Art: 450 Years of Painting and Other Media. Los Angeles: Dustin, 1998. A thorough review of the California art movement beginning with the influential Panama Pacific International Exposition in 1915, the same year that Johnson arrived on the West Coast. This chapter covers the Impressionism and Post-Impressionism eras in the California art community, the Great Depression, and government-sponsored art.

Patton, Sharon F. “Twentieth Century America and Modern Art, 1900-1960.” In African American Art. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Examines the art movements of the 1930’s, when Johnson produced some of his most memorable work.

Pinder, Kymberly N. “Sargent Johnson: Afro-California Modernist.” In Race-ing Art History: Critical Readings in Race and Art History. New York: Routledge, 2002. Discusses Johnson’s life and art in the context of pre-World War II San Francisco.