Johnny Banks"THE HEAD OF JOHN THE BAPTIST" BLACK FOLK ARTIST FROM SAN ANTONIO (1912-1988)20th Century
20th Century
About the Item
- Creator:Johnny Banks (1912 - 1988, American)
- Creation Year:20th Century
- Dimensions:Height: 18 in (45.72 cm)Width: 21 in (53.34 cm)Depth: 2 in (5.08 cm)
- More Editions & Sizes:Image Size: 11.5 x 14.5Price: $1,600
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Framing:Frame IncludedFraming Options Available
- Condition:Please visit my storefront for more vintage and mid-century artwork.
- Gallery Location:San Antonio, TX
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU769312649172
Johnny Banks
African American folk artist, John Willard Banks was a black self-taught artist. He was the son of Charlie and Cora Lee Banks and was born on November 7, 1912, near Seguin, Texas. At the age of five, his parents took him to San Antonio, where he attended Holy Redeemer School. At the age of nine, his parents got divorced and John returned to his grandparents' farm near Seguin. From childhood Banks' favorite pastime was drawing pictures on his Big Chief tablet. While helping out on his grandparents' farm, Banks completed the 10th grade before striking out on his own. His favorite activities during his youth were singing in a gospel quartet and playing baseball. In his adult years, he worked in oilfields and cotton fields, drove a truck and tended a San Antonio service station. During World War II. he joined the army where he held the rank of sergeant and was stationed in the Philippines. After the war, he returned to San Antonio, where he worked as a custodian at Kelly Air Force Base, at Fort Sam Houston and at a local television station. Banks married Edna Mae Mitchell in 1928 and they had five children. The marriage ended in divorce around 1960. In 1963, he married Earlie Smith. His art career began in 1978 while he was recuperating from an illness for which he had been hospitalized. Banks' wife admired her husband's drawings and secretly took several of them to a San Antonio laundromat. There she hung the drawings on the wall, offering them for sale at the price of fourteen dollars. They were purchased and taken to a gallery for framing. Quite by chance, a San Antonio physician and collector of works of art by black artists saw one of the drawings in the gallery. He telephoned Banks and arranged for a meeting to see his other works. The physician and his wife became friends with John and Earlie Banks and began to advise them on Banks's art career. Banks' first solo exhibition was held at Caroline Lee Gallery in San Antonio in 1984 when Banks was 72 years old. Subsequently, he had a dual exhibition with fellow Texas artist George White at Objects Gallery in San Antonio and was shown in the Southwest Ethnic Arts Society's inaugural exhibition of black artists in San Antonio, where he won a prize. He was included in two traveling exhibitions, “Handmade and Heartfelt” organized by Laguna Gloria Art Museum and Texas Folklife Resources in 1987 and “Rambling on My Mind: Black Folk Art of the Southwest” organized by the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Dallas in 1987. Also in 1987, he was included in a dual exhibition with fellow San Antonio artist John Coleman at the O'Connor Gallery in the McNamara House Museum, Victoria and in 1989 he was one of the six artists included in the traveling exhibition “Black History/Black Vision: The Visionary Image in Texas” organized by the Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery at The University of Texas. Also in 1989, Banks was included in the exhibition “Innate Creativity: Five Black Texas Folk Artists” sponsored by the National Museum of African American History and Culture held at the Dallas Public Library. Banks developed a distinct style, outlining figures in pencil or ballpoint pen and shading them in with colored pencils, crayons and felt-tipped marker. Sometimes his art was influenced by his early, rural memories, including scenes of baptisms, church meetings, hog killings, funerals and Juneteenth celebrations. These works serve as excellent documents of black life in early twentieth-century Texas. At other times, Banks' work was the result of an inner vision that led him to such revelations as his Second Coming of Christ, in which he drew his view of the activities man might be found engaging if Christ should return today. Whether his subjects were religious or rural, they took place in lush landscapes, often with tree-lined rivers flowing through the composition. He did a series of African scenes drawn from his imagination, in which he depicted idyllic villages where communal activities took place. Often they included references to the bounty of nature and the virtue of working together toward a common goal. In other pictures, Banks told more somber stories, of slave auctions and inner-city ghetto scenes. Through the facial expressions and gestures of the figures, Banks revealed their psychological states and personalities. The book Folk Art In Texas has an extensive article written about Johnny Banks. When Banks died in San Antonio on April 14, 1988, he left behind several hundred drawings.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: San Antonio, TX
- Return PolicyThis item cannot be returned.
- "THE LONELY WILD" BLACK FOLK ARTIST FROM SAN ANTONIO TEXAS (1912-1988)By Johnny BanksLocated in San Antonio, TXJohnny Banks (1912-1988) San Antonio Artist Size: 11 x 14 Frame: 17 x 20 Medium: mixed media Dated 1979 "The Lonely Wild" Biography Johnny Banks (1912-1988) In my opinion one of the greatest Texas folk artists of all time. The following information was compiled and submitted by Stephanie Reeves: John Willard Banks, San Antonio, Texas, African American Folk...Category
1970s Folk Art Mixed Media
MaterialsColor Pencil, Crayon, Mixed Media
- "ON PAYDAY" BLACK FOLK ARTIST FROM SAN ANTONIO TEXAS (1912-1988)By Johnny BanksLocated in San Antonio, TXJohnny Banks (1912-1988) San Antonio Artist Size: 11 x 15 Frame: 16.75 x 20.75 Medium: Mixed Media "On Pay Day" Biography Johnny Banks (1912-1988) In my opinion one of the greatest T...Category
20th Century Folk Art Mixed Media
MaterialsColor Pencil, Crayon
- "NEIGHBORHOOD POOL HALL" BLACK FOLK ARTIST FROM SAN ANTONIO TEXAS (1912-1988)By Johnny BanksLocated in San Antonio, TXJohnny Banks (1912-1988) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 14 x 22 Frame Size: 20 x 28 Medium: "Mixed Media" "Neighborhood Pool Hall" Biography Johnny Banks (1912-1988) In my opinion on...Category
20th Century Folk Art Mixed Media
MaterialsColor Pencil, Crayon
- "TAMALE CART" BLACK FOLK ARTIST FROM SAN ANTONIO TEXAS ARTISTBy Johnny BanksLocated in San Antonio, TXJohnny Banks (1912-1988) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 10.5 x 13.5 Frame Size: 17.25 x 20.25 Medium: Multimedia "Tamale Cart" Biography Johnny Banks (1912-1988) In my opinion one of...Category
20th Century Folk Art Mixed Media
MaterialsColor Pencil, Crayon
- "PUPPY LOVE" BLACK FOLK ARTIST FROM SAN ANTONIO TEXAS (1912-1988)By Johnny BanksLocated in San Antonio, TXJohnny Banks (1912-1988) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 11 x 8 Frame Size: 17.5 x 14.5 Medium: Multimedia "Puppy Love" Biography Johnny Banks (1912-1988) In my opinion one of the gre...Category
20th Century Folk Art Mixed Media
MaterialsColor Pencil
- "The Safari Hunt for the Man Eating Tiger" San Antonio Texas Black Folk ArtistBy Johnny BanksLocated in San Antonio, TXJohnny Banks (1912-1988) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 14 x 22 Frame Size: 21 x 29 Medium: mixed media "The Safari Hunt for the Man Eating Tiger" Biography Johnny Banks (1912-1988) In my opinion one of the greatest Texas folk artists of all time. The following information was compiled and submitted by Stephanie Reeves: John Willard Banks, San Antonio, Texas, African American Folk Artist John Willard Banks, black self-taught artist, the son of Charlie and Cora Lee (McIntyre) Banks, was born on November 7, 1912, near Seguin, Texas. At the age of five his parents took him to San Antonio, where he attended Holy Redeemer School until the age of nine, when his parents were divorced and John returned to his grandparents' farm near Seguin. From childhood Banks's favorite pastime was drawing pictures on his Big Chief tablet. He later recalled, "As a kid I used to lie flat on my stomach, drawing and drawing. . . . My mother had to kick me off the floor to sweep." While helping out on his grandparents' farm, Banks completed the tenth grade before striking out on his own. His favorite activities during his youth were singing in a gospel quartet and playing baseball. In his adult years he worked in oilfields and cotton fields, drove a truck, and tended a San Antonio service station. During World War II he joined the army; he held the rank of sergeant and was stationed in the Philippines. After the war he returned to San Antonio, where he worked as a custodian at Kelly Air Force Base, at Fort Sam Houston, and at a local television station. Banks married Edna Mae Mitchell in 1928, and they had five children. The marriage ended in divorce around 1960. In 1963 he married Earlie Smith. His art career began in 1978 while he was recuperating from an illness for which he had been hospitalized. Banks's wife admired her husband's drawings and secretly took several of them to a San Antonio laundromat. There she hung the drawings on the wall, offering them for sale at the price of fourteen dollars. They were purchased and taken to a gallery for framing. Quite by chance, a San Antonio physician and collector of works of art by black artists...Category
1970s Folk Art Landscape Paintings
MaterialsMixed Media, Crayon
- Fleshy as the T-BoneLocated in Brooklyn, NYMatthew Marcot is an American, self-taught artist specializing in Abstract and Neo-Expressionism, and primary mediums are semiotics and collage. An unde...Category
2010s Neo-Expressionist Mixed Media
MaterialsPermanent Marker, Color Pencil, Canvas, Tape, Pastel, Mixed Media, Acrylic
- Empowering - Colorful Figurative Modern Cultural Commentary Original PaintingBy Fabio CoruzziLocated in Los Angeles, CAItalian artist Fabio Coruzzi merges painting and photography into one imaginative image that offers a new outlook on an otherwise ordinary urban scene. His artworks represent an authenticity unlike any other: layered, textural, controversial, open to imagination, colorful, personal, and inspiring. Coruzzi’s work encapsulates not only urban environments, but the inhabitants as well. Irony is laced between figures drawn with an energetic architectural hand. His work is colorful, funny, and biting through resolutely rendered vignettes of people and places. Fabio Coruzzi used acrylic paint, oil pastel, and graphite to create this one-of-a-kind artwork on canvas. It is signed by the artist on the front and back. This colorful 24-inch high by 30-inch wide original painting is stretched, wired, and ready to hang. It does not require framing. Free local Los Angeles delivery. Affordable U.S. and worldwide shipping available. A certificate of authenticity issued by the art gallery is included. Fabio Coruzzi was born in Foggia, Italy in 1975, and now resides in Southern California, USA. Remarking on his work in conjunction with his perspective on urban environments, Fabio states: "I wish that each painting I make should be like a poem of the place where I've been. I wish to become a poet of our time, like somebody would tell: "I've been there", but telling that my way, telling the audience that, no matter where we are, in a boulevard or in a restaurant, each single place is like an empty box...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Figurative Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil Pastel, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Color Pencil
- "Welcoming the Wellspring" - Contemporary Abstract Mixed Media Painting, 2022Located in San Diego, CAA contemporary, abstract painting, "Welcoming the Wellspring" features colorful markings across a layered, creamy white mixed media background. It is an original work painted in 2022 by abstract expressionist artist Kara Greenwell. The contemporary painting features bold turquoise, navy, red, yellow and lime green geometric abstract shapes and gestural markings that sit atop layers of handmade paper and magazine pages obscured by white and cream acrylic paint. Hidden messages in graphite, charcoal and crayon play across the work's surface. Measuring 24 inches by 24 inches, this abstract painting is an ideally sized modern statement piece to adorn any wall. The artist continued the painting extending around the edges of this gallery wrapped canvas, ensuring visual interest from all angles. This contemporary abstract expressionist work is hand signed by the artist on both front and back and is sealed with Archival, UV-resistant varnish. The painting can be hung a nail or picture hook...Category
2010s Abstract Abstract Paintings
MaterialsPaper, Charcoal, Varnish, Crayon, Oil Pastel, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Hand...
- Space of possibilityLocated in Mantova, MNTextured mixed media and collage abstract modern painting. In the research of contemporary artist Federica Aiello Pini, collage acts as a catalyst for the fusion of different times, ...Category
2010s Abstract Abstract Paintings
MaterialsPastel, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Pencil, Color Pencil
- Nu au fauteuilBy Gen PaulLocated in LE HAVRE, FRGEN PAUL (1895-1975) Nu au fauteuil Ink and pencil drawing Size: 26 x 20 cm Dimensions with frame: 43 x 37 cm Signed upper right. In perfect state of conservation Framing is FREE ...Category
20th Century French School Mixed Media
MaterialsMixed Media, Pastel, Handmade Paper, Color Pencil
- Sling HashBy Leslie BostromLocated in Boston, MAcollage created in 1998, from the artists studio, on archival paper, smudges, intentional with use of graphite. Mixed media, graphite, drawing, pastels, text. signed L.B. lower righ...Category
1990s Other Art Style Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsCharcoal, Oil Pastel, Mixed Media, Color Pencil, Graphite