Lester Johnson Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
A New York artist, known as a second-generation Abstract Expressionist, Lester Johnson was born to a large Lutheran family in Minneapolis. He studied at the Minneapolis School of Art and the St. Paul Art School. There, he was introduced to Hans Hofmann's teaching approach, particularly the push and pull effects of form and color by St. Paul teachers Alexander Masley and Cameron Booth, both of whom had studied with Hofmann in Munich. After further study at the Chicago Art Institute, Johnson moved to New York City in 1947 and became one of the first downtown loft-dwellers. He shared a lower East Side studio with Larry Rivers and attended some of Hofmann's New York classes. Rents were cheap, but Johnson was broke much of the time as he tried to support his painting through a variety of part-time jobs, including teaching art. In 1950, he and realist figurative painter Philip Pearlstein shared studio space. Lester's wife, Jo, had introduced the two artists at a time when she and Pearlstein were studying art history at New York University.
Johnson's various studios, on the Bowery and elsewhere, were always one flight up with a view of Manhattan's active street life. No wonder, for over 50 years, street scenes have been a dominant part of his art. Johnson adopted the working techniques of action painting, which meant he used a great deal of paint. A tube of oil paint might be expended in seconds as he, like Pollock, physically projected himself into the work. The images that Johnson produced were not decorative, but stubbornly confrontational, oversize, brooding, thickly encrusted, scarred surfaces that were alive with recognizable objects and figures. Even today, few realize how radical it was for Johnson to depict a recognizable subject in an adamantly pro-abstract-expressionist climate. Sculptor George Segal recalled, "The Abstract Expressionists were legislating any reference to the physical world totally out of art. This was outrageous to us." The rebellion came naturally to Lester Johnson, and he remained tenaciously outside the mainstream. Nonetheless, he produced a body of work that influenced several generations of younger painters and confounded an art establishment in need of neat categorization. He remains one of the few painters whose work holds significance for both abstract and figurative artists. Johnson's animated men and women, with all their nervous energy, yield themselves only gradually to analysis and will no doubt be reinterpreted for many years to come.
1970s Lester Johnson Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pastel, Watercolor
1970s Other Art Style Lester Johnson Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Conté, Charcoal, Spray Paint, Board
1990s Abstract Expressionist Lester Johnson Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Watercolor
1960s Expressionist Lester Johnson Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Enamel
2010s Contemporary Lester Johnson Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Conté, Charcoal, Archival Paper, Graphite
2010s Expressionist Lester Johnson Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Paper, Pastel, Ink, Pencil, Color Pencil
2010s Contemporary Lester Johnson Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Conté, Charcoal, Archival Paper, Graphite
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Lester Johnson Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Archival Paper, Color Pencil, Pastel, Watercolor
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Expressionist Lester Johnson Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Paper, Tempera, Watercolor
Late 20th Century Lester Johnson Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Conté, Charcoal
1990s Modern Lester Johnson Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Conté, Charcoal
Late 20th Century Expressionist Lester Johnson Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Paper, Oil Pastel
2010s Contemporary Lester Johnson Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Conté, Charcoal, Archival Paper, Graphite
1960s Realist Lester Johnson Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Paper, Conté, Charcoal
2010s Contemporary Lester Johnson Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Conté, Charcoal, Archival Paper, Graphite
1950s Expressionist Lester Johnson Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Paper, Oil Crayon, Pastel, Ink
