In 1914 he joined the "Green Flower" (in Latvian: "Zaļā puķe", in Russian: "Зелёный цветок") association of avant-garde artists (besides Johansons, there were also Aleksandrs Drēviņš, Voldemārs Tone (lv) and Konrāds Ubāns.

In 1921, "self-tensile constructions" were exhibited, which became globally known as "tensegrity" in the 1950s as the topical concept was popularized by Richard Buckminster Fuller and sculptor Kenneth Snelson's work.

Kārlis' father, Voldemar Johansons, was a carpenter for the famous Cesis Builders Brothers Meganeels; his mother, Kristin, cared for their seven children.

"[2] After attending the Municipal Art School in Riga during the 1910s, in 1914 Johansons joined the "Green Flower" (Latvian: Zaļā puķe) artist group.

During the October Revolution and in 1918 he lived in Moscow and worked in the artist's workshop of the Latvian National Commission under the direction of Aleksandr Drevin, also a "Green Flower" member.

[citation needed] At art school, Johansons developed a life-long friendship with Konrāds Ubāns, Voldemārs Tone, and Aleksandr Drevin, also a Cesmen.

During the war was a strenuous active stage in the sculptor's work as Johansons and Konrad Ubana made a series of gypsum plaster masks from fallen artillery riflemen.

"[citation needed] Unlike his friends, Uban and Tone, Johannson did not return to Latvia in 1918, but stayed with Gustav Klutsis, Karl Veidemani, and Voldemar Anderson in Moscow.

In 1921 the Constructivists expressed their ideas at an ambitious Moscow exhibition under the umbrella of The Society of Young Artists (Russian: Общество Молодых Художников abbreviated to ОБМОХУ/OBMOKhU, ru, de).

In the same year he participated in the INKhUK (Institute of Artistic Culture) debate, "Analysis of Construction and Composition and their Mutual Demarcation".

To his Cesis family in letters from Moscow Johannson expressed a strong desire to return to his homeland, but could not as he became seriously ill and died in 1929 from untreated malaria he caught in the Caucasus region.

[5] In photos of the 1921 INKhUK (Institute of Artistic Culture) exhibition, Maria Elizabeth Gough identified a total of nine sculptures made by Johansons, now numbered I-IX.

[2] The fundamental concept in all of Johansons' work relates to one issue: How structural tensile-stress stability occurs when objects are bound with simple contact without fusing, adhesives, or chemical reactions.