Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service

William H. Johnson Works: A Collection with an Intriguing History

SITES' upcoming fine art exhibition, William H. Johnson: An American Modern, features a jewel-like collection of 20 works encapsulating the artist's stylistic evolution and subjective experience of the world. Currently owned by Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, the story of how these paintings found their way to Morgan, and how they now come to travel with the Smithsonian, is dramatic.

William H. Johnson (1901-1970)--a wildly prolific artist who was lauded as a technical master and experimental genius at the height of his career--suddenly and permanently stopped painting at the age of 46 due to health concerns that persisted for the remainder of his life. By this point, Johnson was a childless widower, and his art was moved to a rented storage space in lower Manhattan for safekeeping.

In 1956, the William Harmon Foundation, an early Johnson patron, took ownership of the artist's collection of art, books, and personal effects, and agreed to use them to promote Johnson's reputation and to advance the achievements of other black American artists. The Foundation recognized the unique value in Johnson's work and put forth a great effort to conserve and exhibit the art they acquired.

Three years before Johnson's death in 1970, the Harmon Foundation closed its doors. Fortunately, its founders took bold steps to ensure that Johnson's work would continue to be seen and celebrated. The Foundation's collection of 1,154 paintings by Johnson was given to what is now the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

The Harmon Foundation charged the Smithsonian with the task of reaching out "to the masses of our people" and "rais[ing] their sights and . . . feeling for art at the core of life," and specifically requested that selected Johnson works be distributed to several black colleges and universities, including Morgan State. The young and enthusiastic leaders of the art departments at these schools were committed, as the Harmon Foundation had been, to raising the profile of African American artists.

Morgan's art department chair, James E. Lewis, was first on the scene and carefully selected works from each stage of Johnson's career. The masterful paintings Mr. Lewis chose have remained at the university for the past 35 year, yet the collection has never been displayed in its entirety. Gabriel Tenabe, Mr. Lewis's successor as director of the Museum of Art at Morgan State University, knew of his institution's history with the Smithsonian and began exploring the possibility of collaborating on a traveling exhibition more than a decade ago. Mr. Tenabe called in Marquette Folley, a project director at SITES, to brainstorm for ideas, and Morgan's collection of Johnson paintings soon emerged as a strong prospect.

The resulting William H. Johnson exhibition and accompanying book of the same title are a true testament to the good that can come when cultural institutions stay true to their mission. The collaboration between SITES, Morgan State, and a small community of Johnson scholars has succeeded not only in bringing Johnson to the attention of museums and museum patrons around the country, but also in providing a fresh analysis of his work and his significance as a often overlooked genius of American modern art.

--Robin Meyer, SITES Publications Intern

American Work History Told in New Exhibit

Opening this September, The Way We Worked explores the causes and effects of the many changes to the American workforce and work environments over the past 150 years. 

Transforming a show comprised of 80 black-and-white archival photographs into a colorful, free-standing exhibition complete with objects, audio, and video is no easy task. But SITES' Museum on Main Street (MoMS) team has done it again! The Way We Worked began as an exhibition at the National Archives and then traveled with SITES in its original format for four years. Now the MoMS crew, together with the show's original curator and the folks at the Smithsonian Office of Exhibits Central (OEC), has created a spectacular new version of the show that hits the road this fall. The exhibition will travel to 180 communities in 30 states over its six years on the road.

The MoMS version of the show offers a fresh take on the exhibition content and a bold new experience for viewers. MoMS project director Robbie Davis said "moving away from framed photographs hanging on walls gave us a great deal of freedom to present the story in a new way." I recently visited OEC where the MoMS displays are created and assembled, and the photographs do indeed reveal new secrets when blown-up to life size, cropped to highlight small details, and presented as silhouetted forms. In addition, reproducing the photographs digitally allows for creative overlapping of images, juxtapositions, and comparisons with posters, murals, and advertisements. The new version of The Way We Worked has over twice as many photographs as the original--including color images of contemporary jobs--but the dynamic new display keeps the viewer's attention focused and engaged.


Bruce Bustard, the curator from the National Archives, was with me on my visit to OEC. As one
accustomed to working primarily with documents and photographs, he was especially impressed by the clever use of objects, noting that they "add texture to the exhibit while still keeping its original spirit." There are some objects which are familiar to viewers (a Blackberry smartPhone, for example), and others with which many will be unfamiliar. (Two I had never seen before were a secretary's shorthand practice book and computer punch cards.)

A special technology grant from the Smithsonian has allowed the MoMS team to transform the exhibition even more than they originally dreamed possible. Come September, the exhibition will have specially mounted video screens displaying archival video footage and fresh interviews documenting the role of work in Americans' lives. In addition, a cell phone-based audio guide, with information adapted to each state will be available to visitors, who will also be able to use their cell phones to add their own stories to an online oral history archive. 

For more information about MoMS, please visit the website. 

--Robin Meyer, SITES publications intern