Lot 216

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Description:

Buffie Johnson
American, (1912-2006)
Five from The Numbering Series, 1989
oil on canvas
signed, titled, and dated verso.

Biography from Anita Shapolsky Gallery: Buffie Johnson's canvases are witness to her creative process from the world's largest abstract mural in the Astor Theatre in the late 50s, to her gestural paintings of the 60s, her monumental plant images of the 70s and 80s, and then her numbering series of the 90s that explores "the power that arises from zero." Each painting retained her expressionist energy, brushstrokes, and texture.

During a turbulent childhood, Buffie Johnson was shuffled between parents, sent to a convent, and finally ended up with relatives in Massachusetts. At age eight she began painting her Spirits Of series. The spirits included the sun, moon, winds, earth, sky, and stars. The Cosmic Goddess and the cyclical nature of life would become a theme and influence on her work throughout her life.

She began regular studies, which included courses in art in the 1920s. In the 30s, she traveled to Paris to study with Francis Picabia and Stanley William Hayter. Buffie's friends in the early 1940s included Tony Smith, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko. During the height of Abstract Expressionism her circle also involved Lee Krasner, Willem DeKooning, and Robert Motherwell. By the 1950s, when "you paint like a man" was the biggest compliment a woman could receive, Buffie felt she was surrounded by an anti-female energy from the other artists.

Always striving to represent divine female power even when met with resistance and discouragement, Buffie Johnson herself embodies that very power. An extraordinary woman, who has lived her entire life producing and celebrating art, Buffie has blazed a trail for artists and women alike. After nearly a century, the wisdom and body of work that Buffie offers is unparalleled in quality and spiritual intensity.

"American Transcendentalists are both singular and few, and it is among the few, and at a well defined spiritual distance from other artists of her generation, that Buffie Johnson lives." -Horace Gregory

    Dimensions:
  • 16" x 16", 17 1/2" x 17 1/2" (frame)
  • Artist Name:
  • Buffie Johnson
  • Medium:
  • oil on canvas

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February 25, 2023 11:00 AM EST
Indianapolis, IN, US

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