ENTERTAINMENT
BRIEFS
Lov r'
n
I
roo •
"The key to Johnson' s ,"
Powell says,"w his realization
tbat. a Bl c artist who co d brin
to bla lit a vital, exp ive point of
vie r001Cd in a ditional y of
life, be could crea 0 of major
co eenee for modem art." Sadly,
Johnson's career came to an brupt
end in 1947 wben he entered a s te
hospital in New York with a
deblUtatln mental ill rcsulti
from ayphil •
1be atory of in the artist'a
ort began with Helen Harrlton'a
rescue ction. The Harmon foUDda-
on, hich bono� chievemcn of
African Americam, discovered that
the materials it received from the
warebo e formed an exp ive
record of Jo 'a entire career.
Yet, the foundation's executive
director wro to a friend, "I have
never teen such mishandled tuff in
my life."
BECAUS JOHNSON waa
poor for ao lona.
•
and burlap potato be. aturally,
these material were not able to
withstand the poor conditions of
wareho storage Many heavily-
painted oils on canvas nd burl p
were cracked and chipped beyond
repair. Paintings on plywood had
buckled UDder countl temperature
ad humidity changes.
WorD on paper bid been chewed
by vermin. In addition, Johnson's
ork auffered u be periodically
his oaat around Europe
aDd UDited Sta •
After the Harmon Foundation
diIcarded the absolutely UDIIlvage-'
able material, what left w a
collection tbat documented
10lmaon' wortfrombi firststudent
painlin,s to bi last didactic
"Figbtel1 for Freedom" eries of
1945. The foWldation's staftsorted
t they dod,v.d: .. ,. ..
Jo •• re
grouped tbe work by re pectlve
media (watercolor, paintings and
others).
The next tepa Included cleanin J
minimal conservation work, piKing
canv on stretchers, matting worD
01) paper and framing.
In 1966, with the Harmon
Foundation' funds depleted aDd ill
activit! t a standstill, the JobaIOn
collection atood at another
crossroadl-but not for 10 •
U "bad a formldab ... k"
in JeCO tructtna I IDC1
of an artist whose history, ide from
his art, w more or I conftDed to
a thick yellowing scrapbook of fraJ
mented lettel1, forelgn-lanlUlge
clipping and unidentified
photographs.
Breeakin and colleapea prepared
an extensive bibliography of pub
lished revie , interviewed acquain
-tance. In the United Sta and
abroad, ipeel daa 10 many pre
vioUily undocumented worD and
developed a chronology for the ever
travellnl Johnlon.
B ldina OIl the earlier wort of
cholara, Powell says, hia atudy
"pro to revile the mo.t com
monly held view oflolmlon--tbatof
the artist a traJic iIolato-aDd
replace it with an imap �t •• .Iho
his constant explorations and per
sonal discoveri of self and place."
'.
near-&l'lllmeo diamond ring
r of Eddie
urphy'a 10 -time girlfriml
(mS mother of two- old
ttl r, BriI) Nicole Ml1C3U
haa sparked rumors of an
e ement. Eddie's people
't
Two membe 0 tbe 2 Uve
Crew are once again uing
Luther Campbell. David Hobbs
and Mart Ro. filed uit apiDst
Oamphell fbrwitbmldilW royal ..
in of $1 million t
�.
The DeW suit an injuoc-
Dl'e'feoliJlJQ Campbell fJom
tbe2lMQcwtrldemllt.
claimin Hobba a 01
orip the me before
�ll I.tanytblngm
do with the pup. 1bcy further
I1JtCd that they and ootCampbell
provided � aeativity.
No comment from Campbell,
wIae solo album, "[ Got S.J On
My MiNI' let for IelcMe I.t
\WlCk.
Malcolm, M rtln,
and 18 &
Und rwood?
BI Ir Underwood's on
sacen lntenadal affair mryliDc
may be getting a great deal of
aIIa.aiOD. but UuIeIwood knows
aIlm 11 his �ritage.
This month (in celebration of
Black History M>nth), Under
wood will expound on It nar
rator of "Malcolm, Martin 4c
MII1tdtda", a 9O-minute radiQ
docudrama praICIlSCd by Bailey
Broadca tinl Services, the
.. tion's fq) B :-ownecIlIdio
synclicU)r.
Uottelwood thrilJCcl m
take part in the paqpam, wbicb
looks at b IMa and conlnbu
tiom oftbrceoftbc IDOItinOuen-
tial BlICk of our_.
1bc pJOglllD is act to air in
more than 8S U.s. marIz •
- caep"" bJ It.
. s,-d_�:LWColIiIu
(BdWl·T1w& .... )
to bloom.
The pirite4 r 0 the African-
American painter William H.
Johnson (1901-1970) is an example.
U Vincent van Gogh, Jolmaon
w deeply Ccted in life and
career by mental ill , and like the
Dutch Johnson labored with
little financial re lId througbout hla
lifetime. Ev n now, Jo n's fol-
lowln quite limited, although
wort Ion enjoyed critical ac-
claim.
A new exhibition of Johnson' art
at the Smithsonian' National
Museum of American Art in
W hington, D.C" gives viewers a
glance of why critics have admired
the ani t. The exhibition, on view
through March 1, 1992, is the result
of a tudy of Johnson by Dr. Richard
Powell, tant professor 0 art at
Duke Unlve ity.
-Homecoming: William H.
Johnson and Afro-America, 1938-
1946" takes viewers on a colorful
journey through the cotton p tcbes
and pulpits of the South, the dance
hal and dty Itree of Harlem and
the tralnin camps and batdefiel of
the
Academy of Deaip in York"
Johnson headed for Europe In 1926
where be lived, met hiI Daniah wife..
to-be and traveled extc lvely. He
experimented ith modern, expres ..
sionist styles, preferring portraiture,
atililife m11anc1sc1pe ubjectl. His
return to the United Sta in 1938
w prompted partly by convict on
that war w imminent in B
aDdbecl.UM
"my own people. "
ON APRIL 1'. 1"', tbe Smith
sonian, recognizing the ignificance
of the collection to &be biatory of
American art, acquired the bold
and oon began preparing for
Johnson's first m um retrospec
tive in 1971.
Art historian Adelyn Breeslcin,
The story of U'I Sis and Uncle Willie
"I remember the day Uncle
Willie came home. It was a bot
June afternoon in Florence, South
Carlonla. .
"Everyone left off their work
around tbe farmyard when they
beard my grandma, Mom Alice,
yell. 'He's herel He' here.I' 'We
all knew abe w ta1�ng about
Uncle Willie. He'd been away for
years and years. After moving to
New York ayoungmanto tudy
art, he had traveled to Scandinavia,
France, Germany and North Africa
to live and paint,"
So begins the delightful story •
U'I Sis and Uncle Willie, a boOk·
for children based on the life and
paintings of the African American
artist WIlllam H. Johnson (1901-
1970). Jo the lubJect of a
DCW tudy e idoD the
Smitblo 'a ti M \lID
of Am ricin Art, blch has
preaerved more tban 1.000 of
painti
Written by Gwendolyn H.
Everett of them um'a n
a the a ry II told t the
oy of aim t year-o d U'l
�� '. -real life" ecc.
The theme of the story is that
from the moment of b.iJ arrival
bome, Johnson cbanaed forever
� little gIrl'a pen:eptio of .
and the wodd around ber. "M I
tared up at him, I thought I had
Dever seen anyone so tall. udden-
Iy, be swept me up in a big bear
. I'm Li'l S IDd thia my
doU. lJDIaD. We everywhere
ocI at IJI-
found a t