WILLIAM H. JOHNSON

Johnson (1901-1970) left his hometown of Florence, South Carolina, for New York in 1918. Three years later he was admitted to the National Academy of Design, and in the summers of 1924-1926 he studied with Charles W. Hawthorne at the Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown. Hawthorne raised the money to send him to Paris in 1926 for a year of independent study. Instead, Johnson remained abroad for twelve years, mostly in Denmark and Norway. In 1930 he married Danish artist Holcha Krake, and they traveled throughout Europe and Africa and exhibited widely. Johnson experimented with a number of different styles during his lifetime, including expressionism, but many of his paintings and murals were done in a traditional style. His religious paintings reflected his interest in African and European primitive art. After he returned to New York with his wife in 1938 the subject matter and style of his paintings changed from expressionistic landscapes and portraits to African American themes in flat, boldly colored compositions. In 1946 Johnson returned to Denmark but was struck with a debilitating brain disease, sent back to New York, and placed in a Long Island mental hospital, where he remained until his death in 1970.

JACOB LAWRENCE (1917- )

Lawrence was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and settled at the age of 12 with his mother in Harlem, where he benefited significantly from the Harlem Renaissance. Lawrence gained early fame at 21, with a series of paintings on black leaders and themes. Usually using tempera, and preferring angular, simplified forms, his canvases often have the look of posters rather than paintings. He enjoyed a successful career for more than fifty years.

HORACE PIPPIN (1888-1946)

Pippin was born to a poor family, but at age ten his prize for winning a magazine drawing contest was a box of crayons, water paints, and brushes. However, his career as an artist began late in life after Pippin had served as a soldier in World War I and worked as a porter, furniture packer, and iron molder. Self-taught, he gained a national reputation as a "true American primitive" in the 1940s. His bold narrative paintings of childhood memories, war experiences, heroes, and religious subjects were widely exhibited and became fashionable along the Main Line in Philadelphia, not far from Pippin's home in West Chester, PA. As a corporal in the 369th Colored Infantry Regiment, which fought at the front lines in the Argonne Forest under French command, Pippin gained the awful experiences that later inspired him to paint. He lost the use of his right arm when he was shot through the shoulder by a German sniper and lay for a day in a shell hole before being rescued by a French soldier. Later, he would use his left hand to guide his right while painting. The earliest surviving examples of his art are pencil and crayon drawings of the 369th in action.

MARTIN PURYEAR

Puryear was born in Washington, D.C., the eldest son of a post office supervisor and a grade school teacher. At an early age he demonstrated an ability for drawing, painting, and carpentry, and was fascinated by nature. After receiving his college art degree, Puryear joined the Peace Corps teaching English, French, and biology in Sierra Leone. His time in Africa and observation of African woodworking methods played a critical role in the development of his art. His own art reflects African heritage in so far as he reveres the strongly expressive forms of tribal wooden sculpture, but he does not relate his works to the collective African American experience, stating instead that the role of the artist is necessarily solitary and insular.