Leroy Johnson (1937 – July 8, 2022) was a largely self-taught African American artist who used found materials to create mixed-media works.
[1] He was known for his paintings, assemblage sculptures and collages that were inspired, influenced and reflective of African American history and his experiences living in the inner city of Philadelphia.
[6] When Johnson was about 7 or 8 years old, he read Richard Wright’s novel “Native Son,” and asked his mother who wrote it, he said in video interviews.
Will Eisner was among his favorite cartoonists, along with Milton Caniff, who drew “Terry and the Pirates.” He was also exposed to Life, Ebony and Jet magazines.
They told a newspaper reporter that they were planning to hold it at St. Cyprian Episcopal Church in the Elmwood section of Southwest Philadelphia but had not yet gotten permission from the Rev.
[13] Johnson began his art career primarily as a painter until he saw huge pots in a crafts magazine when he was 22 years old in the early 1960s.
The painting showed a wood-burning stove, a metal iron for pressing clothes, the family seated at a table ready for a meal, as well as quilts, blankets and rugs, he said.
[15] The painting represented “a desire and need forged in migration, war, and existence in a nation where terrorism still confronted African Americans,” Johnson wrote for his art residency at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia from 1995-2001.
[14] The artists of the Arte Povera Movement were also influential, he said, in encouraging him to use objects and materials from his neighborhood to add texture to his works.
[13] “African American culture has been shaped by traumatic history, because it contains the memory of a hard, unclean break from Africa," he said.
I feel I continue the tradition of African American artists and take a stand for freedom, justice and empowerment.
"[24] Johnson produced several series of mixed-media work: "Street Scenes," which featured rowhouses and surrounding streets in his neighborhood; "Lynching Series," collages consisting of Bible verses, crosses and news clippings pertaining to lynching in America, and "Men with Hats," relief images of men, including his own "Self-Portrait, Mourning" (2000).
He got the idea for one of the pieces - of a man whose large nose covered the top of his lips - from a drawing done by one of his elementary school students.
[25] Johnson intentionally misspelled wording on some of the street signs in his structures to "combat ignorance of African American accomplishments," noted an essay for a solo exhibit in 2004 at Swarthmore College's List Gallery.
It was formed to expand the definition of Black artists as an eclectic group of people who worked in a variety of mediums, and to plan and mount their own exhibits.
Its founders were Syd Carpenter, James Dupree, Carolyn Hayward-Jackson, Richard Jordan, Charles Searles, Hubert C. Taylor and Andrew Turner.
[32] In 1991, he taught pottery and ceramics to troubled youths with behavioral problems at the Touchstone Center for the Arts in Farmington, PA.
Other Philadelphia artists included Moe Brooker, Ellen Powell (Tiberino), Barbara Bullock, Walter Edmonds, Charles Pridgen and Percy Ricks.
[15][40] In 2019, he was selected for the Mural Arts Studio Artist-in-Residence at the Barnes Foundation where he produced paintings and sculptures pertaining to the Civil War.
Johnson's process in creating artwork was featured in a short film titled "Red Brick, Green Grass, Blue Sky".