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Buffie Johnson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Buffie Johnson
The artist "Buffie at 30", Circa 1935, photograph by Edward Weston
Born(1912-02-12)February 12, 1912
New York, New York
DiedAugust 11, 2006(2006-08-11) (aged 94)
New York, New York
NationalityAmerican
Known forPainting
MovementSurrealism, Abstract Expressionism

Buffie Johnson (February 12, 1912 – August 11, 2006) was an American painter, associated with the Abstract Imagists.

Biography

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Born in New York City, Johnson studied in her youth at the Académie Julian in Paris and at the Art Students League of New York.[1] She had lessons with Francis Picabia and Stanley William Hayter,[2] and she earned a Master of Arts degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1943, Johnson was included in Peggy Guggenheim's show Exhibition by 31 Women at the Art of This Century gallery in New York.[3] From 1946 to 1950 she taught at the Parsons School of Design. She received many awards, including fellowships from Yaddo, the Bollingen Foundation, and the Edward Albee Foundation and her work appeared at the Whitney Biennial on multiple occasions. In 1988 she published Lady of the Beasts: Ancient Images of the Goddess and Her Sacred Animals. Twice married – her second husband was the critic Gerald Sykes – Johnson was survived by a daughter.[2]

Johnson's work is include the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,[4] the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,[5] the Smithsonian American Art Museum,[6] the Walker Art Center,[7] the Whitney Museum of American Art,[8] In 2016 her biography was included in the exhibition catalogue Women of Abstract Expressionism organized by the Denver Art Museum.[9]

Legacy

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She was posthumously awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for Women in the Arts 2007 by the College Art Association Committee on Women in the Arts (CWA) and the Women's Caucus for Art (WCA).[10]

Johnson's image is included in the iconic 1972 poster Some Living American Women Artists by Mary Beth Edelson.[11]

In 2023 her work was included in the exhibition Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 at the Whitechapel Gallery in London.[12]

Buffie Johnson is mentioned in Patricia Highsmith's Diaries and Notebooks 1941-1995 Autobiography Edited by Anna Von Planta Chapter 5 as having a brief relationship with Patricia Highsmith.[13]

References

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  1. ^ Jules Heller; Nancy G. Heller (19 December 2013). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-63882-5.
  2. ^ a b "Buffie Johnson, Artist and Friend of Artists, Dies at 94". The New York Times. 2 September 2006. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
  3. ^ Butler, Cornelia H.; Schwartz, Alexandra (2010). Modern Women: Women Artists at The Museum of Modern Art. New York: Museum of Modern Art. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-87070-771-1.
  4. ^ "Reflections". Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
  5. ^ "Johnson, Buffie". SFMOMA. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
  6. ^ "Buffie Johnson". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
  7. ^ "Buffie Johnson". Walker Art Center. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
  8. ^ "Buffie Johnson". Whitney Museum of American Art. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
  9. ^ Marter, Joan M. (2016). Women of abstract expressionism. Denver New Haven: Denver Art Museum Yale University Press. p. 181. ISBN 9780300208429.
  10. ^ "Buffie Johnson - Biography". artNET. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  11. ^ "Some Living American Women Artists/Last Supper". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
  12. ^ Highsmith, Patricia (2021). Anna Von Planta (ed.). Patricia Highsmith's Diaries and Notebooks 1941-1995. New York: Liveright Publishing. ISBN 978-1-324-09099-1.
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