Born 0000-00-00
Biography 1919 Born Minneapolis Minnesota 1942-47 Studied at the Minneapolis School of Art, St. Paul Art School, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago 1947 Came to New York 1964 Summer aritist-in-residence University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Wisconsin 1964-89 Professor (Adjunct) of Painting Yale University New Haven 1969-74 Director of Studies Graduate Painting School of Art and Architecture Yale University New Haven Connecticut Awards & Prizes 1987 Elected Associate National Academy of Design 1978 Brandeis University Creative Arts Award for Painting 1973 Guggenheim Fellowship 1961 Longview Fellowship Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1942 Midwestern Artists Competition 1st prize 1941 St. Paul Gallery Scholarship 1940-41 The President’s Scholarship Minneapolis School of Fine Arts 1939 Alfred Pillsbury Scholarship Solo exhibitions 1998 Peter Findlay Gallery New York 1996 Peter Findlay Gallery New York Denise Cade Gallery in association with Joseph Rickards Fine Art New York UFO Gallery Provincetown Massachusetts 1994 Edward Thorp Gallery New York 1991 Erector Square Gallery “A Print Retrospective 1960-1990” New Haven Connecticut 1990 Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer Gallery New York 1989 David Barnett Gallery “Retrospective” Milwaukee Wisconsin 1988 Cone Editions “35 Years of Prints” New York Munson Gallery New Haven Connecticut Goldman-Kraft Gallery Chicago Illinois Walter Moos Gallery “Recent Works” Toronto Canada Augustana College Rock Island Illinois 1987 Westmoreland Museum of Art Greensburg Pennslyvania (traveling) Gallery Moos Ltd. Toronto Canada Gallery Moos Ltd. New York Jack Schainman Gallery “Works on Paper 1960-87” Washington DC 1986 Gallery Moos Ltd. Toronto Canada Munson Gallery New Haven Connecticut 1985 Zabriskie Gallery New York Donald Morris Gallery Detroit Michigan David Barnett Gallery Milwaukee Wisconsin 1984 Kansas City Art Institute Kansas City Missouri Munson Gallery New Haven Connecticut 1983 Chicago International Art Fair (Donald Morris Gallery Booth) Chicago Illinois The PaperWork Gallery Larchmont New York Zabriskie Gallery “The Early Paintings 1957-67” New York 1982 Alpha Gallery Boston Massachusetts Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer Gallery New York 1981 Donald Morris Gallery Detroit Michigan University of Virginia Art Museum Charlottesville Virginia 1980 Swain School of Art New Bedford Connecticut Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer Galery “Street Scenes” New York Gimpel-Hanover & Andre Emmerich Galerien Zurich Switzerland 1979 Gimpel Fils London England Foster Gallery Louisiana State University Baton Rouge Louisiana 1978 Donald Morris Gallery Detroit Michigan Ruth Schaffner Gallery Los Angeles California Peter M. David Gallery Minneapolis Minnesota 1977 Gallery Moos Ltd. Toronto Canada Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer “The City” New York Hurlbutt Gallery Greenwich Library Greenwich Connecticut 1976 Alpha Gallery Boston Massachusetts 1975 Martha Jackson Gallery New York Livingston-Learmonth Gallery “Early Works” New York Jorgensen Gallery University of Connecticut at Storrs 1974 Willaim Cooper Proctor Art Center Bard College Annandale-on-Hudson Ruth Schaffner Gallery Los Angeles California Galerie Smith-Anderson Palo Alto California Donald Morris Gallery Detroit Michigan 1973 Martha Jackson Gallery New York Gallery Moos Ltd. Toronto Canada Richard Gray Gallery Chicago Illinois Ruth Schaffner Gallery Santa Barbara California Smith Andersen Gallery San Francisco California 1972 Alpha Gallery Boston Massachusetts 1971 Martha Jackson Gallery “The Human Situation: Street Scene 1969-71” New York Merridin Gallery London England 1969 Martha Jackson Gallery New York Martha Jackson Graphics New York BC Holland Gallery Chicago Illinois 1968 Smithsonian Institution (traveling exhibition to South America and Europe) CCAC Gallery California College of Arts and Crafts Oakland California 1967 Temple Sholom New York Donald Morris Gallery Detroit Michigan Martha Jackson Gallery New York 1966 Martha Jackson Gallery New York 1965 Donald Morris Gallery Detroit Michigan Yale University Art Museum New Haven Connecticut Anderson-Mayer Gallery Paris France 1964 Martha Jackson Gallery New York 1963 Martha Jackson Gallery New York 1962 Martha Jackson Gallery New York BC Holland Gallery New York Art Institute of Chicago Chicago Illinois Dayton Art Institute Dayton Ohio Ohio State University Museum Columbus Ohio HCE Gallery Provincetown Massachusetts 1961 Minneapolis Art Institute Minneapolis Minnesota Zabriskie Gallery New York Ohio State University Gallery Columbus Ohio 1960 HCE Gallery Provincetown Massachusetts Sun Gallery Provincetown Massachusetts 1959 Zabriskie Gallery New York City Gallery New York Sun Gallery Provincetown Massachusetts 1958 Zabriskie Gallery New York Sun Gallery Provincetown Massachusetts 1957 Zabriskie Gallery New York Sun Gallery Provincetown Massachusetts 1956 Sun Gallery Provincetown Massachusetts 1955 Zabriskie Gallery New York 1954 Korman Gallery New York 1951 Artists Gallery New York Group exhibitions 1995 Skoto Gallery “Editions” New York Pharos Gallery “Editions 1974-1991” New York The Neuberger Museum of Art Puchase New York 1986 The Museum of Modern Art New York “Naked/Nude” print exhibition 1985 The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York “The Artist Celebrates New York” traveling exhibition Museum of American Art Washington DC “Martha Jackson Memorial Collection” Guild Hall Museum East Hampton New York “Federal Support for the Permanent Collection” The Katonah Gallery Katonah New York (Pratt Graphics Center) “Prints Ensuite” Provincetown Art Association and Museum Provincetown Massachusetts “Expressionism, An American Beginning” 1984 The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York “Aspects of the City” Art Museum Association of America San Francisco traveling exhibition “Figure Expressionism” Artists’ Choice Museum New York “The First Eight Years” University of Hartford Joseloff Gallery Hartford Connecticut “David Hayes - Lester Johnson” The Arkansas Arts Center Little Rock Arkansas “Twentieth Century American Drawing from the Arkansas Arts Center Foundation Collection” 1983 Wadsworth Atheneum Hartford Connecticut “Connecticut Painters 7+7+7” Guild Hall Museum East Hampton New York “Selections from the Permanent Collection” Monique Knowlton Gallery New York “The Painterly Figure” Munson Gallery New Haven Connecticut “Contemporary Prints” Summit Art Center Summit New Jersey “American Realism 1930s-1980s, A Contemporary Perspective” University of Arizona Museum of Art “Paintings and Sculpture in the Permanent Collection” 1982 Contemporary Arts Museum Houston Texas “In Our Time” Neuberger Museum of Art SUNY Purchase New York The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art Ridgefield Connecticut “Homo Sapiens” Hamilton College Museum Clinton New York “Contemporary Masters” Marilyn Pearl Gallery New York “American Figurative Expressionism 1950-1960” Landmark Gallery New York “The Changing Figure 1962-1982” Lever House New York “Street Painters” 1981 Provincetown Art Association Provincetown Massachusetts “The Sun Gallery” Moravian College Bethlehem Pennslyvania “12th Annual Invitational Exhibitions of Paintings by Figurative Painters” 1980 Guild Hall East Hampton New York “Portraits Real and Imagined” Harold Reed Gallery New York “Selected 20th Century American Self Portraits” Oklahoma Art Center Oklahoma City “Masters of American Watercolor” Provincetown Art Association Provincetown Massachusetts “James Joyce in Perspective” 1979 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York “Collection: Art in America After World War II” The Art Institute of Chicago “Alumni of School of the Art Institute” Washington County Museum of Art, Hagerstown, MD “Art in Bloom” The Oklahoma Museum of Art Oklahoma City Oklahoma “Masters of the Portrait” 1978 Carlson Art Gallery University of Bridgeport Connecticut “Connecticut Painting, Drawing and Sculpture 1978” Green Mountain Gallery New York “From the Imagination” New Britain Museum of American Art Connecticut “Connecticut Painting, Drawing and Sculpture 1978” Harold Reed Gallery New York “A Benefit for the Yale School of Art: Works by Members of the Yale Faculty 1950-78” Cummings Art Center Connecticut College New London Connecticut “Connecticut Painting, Drawing and Sculpture 1978” 1977 Pleiadea Gallery New York “Tenth Street Days: The Co-ops of the 50s” Oklahoma Art Center “Manscape 77” Provincetown Art Association Provincetown Massachusetts “Provincetown Artists” The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art Ridgefield Connecticut “Fall 77: Contemporary Collectors” 1976 The Indianapolis Museum of Art Indianapolis Indiana “Painting & Sculpture Today 1976” Skidmore College Saratoga Springs New York The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Chicago Illinois “Visions: The Paintings and Sculptures of Distinguished Alumni” 1975 Landmark Gallery New York “Subject Matter” 1974 The Brooklyn Museum New York “Nineteenth National Print Exhibition” 1973 Lerner-Heller Gallery New York “Voices of Alarm” Whitney Museum of American Art New York “1973 Biennial” La Bibliotheque Nationale Paris France “L’Estampes Contemporaine” Minnesota Museum of Art Saint Paul Minnesota “Drawings U.S.A. Ô73” University of Maryland organized by the Finch College Museum of Art and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery “The Private Collection of Martha Jackson” 1972 The Solomon R Guggenheim Museum New York “Ten Independents - An Artist Initiated Exhibition” Hamilton College Clinton New York “Cross-Section New York 1972” Palazzo dell’Academia Palazzo Reale Genoa Italy “Immagine per la Citta” The Art Institute of Chicago “70th American Exhibition” Rockland Community College Suffern New York “Martha Jackson Collection” Lehigh University Pennsylvania “Contemporary Painting” Landmark Gallery New York “118 Artists” The Brooklyn Museum New York “Seventeenth National Print Exhibition” 1971 Jewish Community Center Bayone New Jersey “18th Annual Art Exhibition: From Madison Avenue to the Sohos” Roko Gallery New York “Homage To Tanager” Seibu Department Store Tokyo Japan “Martha Jackson Gallery Collection” New England Art Provincetown Massachusetts “Painting and Sculpture Invitational Show” Weatherspoon Art Gallery University of North Carolina “Art on Paper” 1970 Heckscher Museum Long Island New York “Artists of Suffolk County - Part III Figurative Tradition” Fondation Maeght Vence France L’Art Vivant aux Etats-Unis Galerie Paul Facchetti Paris France “Regards Privileges 1951-70” The Baltimore Museum of Art Baltimore Maryland “The Thomas Edward Benesch Memorial Exhibition of his Collection” Virginia Museum Richmond Virginia “Works on Paper” The Carnegie Institute of Art Pittsburgh Pennsylvania “Carnegie International” 1969 II Bienal Internacional del De Porte en Ias Bellas Artes Madrid Spain Fondation Marguerite et Aime Maeght L’Art Vivant aux Etats Unis St. Paul-de-Vence France Northern Arizona University “Dealers’ Choice” John Bolles Gallery San Francisco California “Paintings Courtesy of Martha Jackson” Philadelphia Art Alliance Philadelphia Pennsylvania Smithsonian Institution Washington DC (traveling Show) The New Vein: The Human Figure 1963-68 1968 The Museum of Modern Art New York (traveling show) Social Comment in American Art Whitney Museum of American Art New York The Albright-Knox Art Gallery Buffalo New York “Buffalo Art Festival” University of Texas Austin Texas The New School for Social Research New York “Figuration” Northwestern University Evanston Illinois “Ravina Festival” Center of Visual Arts Institute Torcuato Di Tella Buenos Aires Argentina “The Figure: A New Vein 1963-1968” Forth Worth Art Center Fort Worth Texas “Six Painters from the Martha Jackson Gallery” Cincinnati Art Museum Cincinnati Ohio “American Paintings on the Market Today” Akron Art Center Akron Ohio Paul Facchetti Gallery Paris France “Timeless Paintings from the U.S.A.” ROSC Dublin Ireland The Poetry of Vision Rhode Island School of Design Providence Rhode Island “Paintings for Your Collection” Detroit Institute of the Arts Detroit Michigan “Project Outreach” 1967 The Museum of Modern Art New York “the 1960’s” The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art Ridgefield Connecticut The Carnegie Institute Pittsburgh Pennsylvania “Carnegie International” Lehigh University Pennsylvania “Fourteenth Annual” The School of Visual Arts New York “Homage to Morandi” Fort Worth Art Center Museum Fort Worth Texas “Junior Council Purchase Show” Whitney Museum of American Art New York “1967 Annual” Martha Jackson Gallery New York “A Christmas Show” 1966 Zabriskie Gallery New York Lehigh University Pennsylvania “Thirteenth Annual” The New School for Social Research New York “Contemporary Urban Visions” Harpur College New York “New Figuration” Oakland University Michigan “A Point of View” 1965 Martha Jackson Gallery New York “Figuration” American Federation of Arts New York (traveling show) Bucknell University 1964 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York “Contemporary American Drawings” Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Philadelphia Pennsylvania “Annual Exhibition” New School Art Center The New School for Social Research New York “Portraits from the American Art World” New School Art Center The New School for Social Research New York “The American Conscience” Museum voor Schone Kunsten Ghent Belgium “Figuration into Abstraction” Carnegie Institute Pittsburgh Pennsylvania “Carnegie International” Larry Aldrich Museum Ridgefield Connecticut “Old Hundred” 1963 Martha Jackson Gallery New YUork “Eleven Americans” Musee Cantonal des Beaux-Arts Lausanne Switzerland “L’Avant-Garde” Ohio State University Museum Columbus Ohio Forth Worth Art Center “Selections from the Fort Worth Collections” 1962 The Museum of Modern Art New York “Recent Paintings USA: The Figure” The Art Institute of Chicago Chicago Illinois “Recent Trends in Painting, USA” 1961 The Museum of Modern Art New York “Recent Painting and Sculpture” The Carnegie Institute Pittsburgh Pennsylvania “Carnegie International” The Museum of Contemporary Art Houston Texas The Emerging Figure 1960 Felix Landau Gallery Los Angeles California American Federation of Arts New York “Figure in Contemporary Painting” City and Town School New York “Critics Choice” Institute of Contemporary Art Boston Massachusetts Future Classics American Federation of Arts New York “Graphics 1960” Weatherspoon Art Gallery University of North Carolina “Pusuit and Measurement of Excellence” University of Nebraka Lincoln Nebraska “Nebraska Annual” 1959 Ellison Gallery Fort Worth Texas (two person exhibition) Institute of Contemporary Art Boston Massachusetts “100 Works on Paper” Sarah Lawrence College Bronxville New York Art U.S.A. University of Colorado Boulder “Painting Annual” Nebraska Art Association Lincoln Nebraska Salzburg Festival Germany 1958 The Baltimore Museum of Art Baltimore Maryland “Critics Choice” Whitney Museum of American Art New York “Annual” 1957 Minneapolis Institute of Art Minneapolis Minnesota American Painting 1945-57 Stable Gallery New York Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Philadelphia Pennsylvania 1956 The Jewish Museum New York Artists of the New York School: Second Generation 1955 813 Broadway 813 Broadway with Jan Muller, Wolf Kahn, Miles Forst and others 1951 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Philadelphia Pennsylvania Annual Watercolor Exhibition 1949 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Philadelphia Pennsylvania Annual Watercolor Exhibition Selected public collections Harry N. Abrams Inc. Publishers New York The Albright-Knox Art Gallery Buffalo New York The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art Ridgefield Connecticut The Baltimore Museum of Art Baltimore Maryland Boca Raton Museum Boca Raton Florida The Bruce Museum Greenwich Connecticut The Carnegie Museum of Art Pittsburgh Pennsylvania The Chase Manhattan Bank New York The Chrysler Museum Norfolk Virginia Dayton Art Institute Dayton Ohio The Detroit Institute of Arts Detroit Michigan Fogg Art Museum Harvard University Art Museums Fort Lauderdale Museum Fort Lauderdale Florida Fort Worth Art Museum Fort Worth Texas The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York Guild Hall Eastman Hampton New York Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Washington DC Honolulu Academy of Arts Honolulu Hawaii Housatonic Museum of Art Bridgeport Connecticut Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Kalamazoo Michigan Madison Art Center Madison Wisconsin The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York Minneapolis Institute of Art Minneapolis Minnesota The Museum of Modern Art New York National Museum of American Art Washington DC Neuberger Museum SUNY Purchase New York The New Jersey State Museum Trenton New Jersey The New School for Social Research New York The New York Public Library New York Orton Museum Ohio State University Dayton Ohio Phoenix Art Museum Phoenix Arizona Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery University of Nebraska Art Galleries Lincoln Nebraska U.S. Steel Corporation Pittsburgh Pennsylvania University of Arizona Museum of Art Tucson Arizona Westmoreland Museum of Art Greensburg Pennsylvania The Walker Art Center Minneapolis Minnesota The Wadsworth Atheneum Hartford Connecticut Wichita Art Museum Wichita Kansas Williams College Museum of Art Williamstown Massachusetts Milwaukee Union Art Gallery University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Wisconsin Rose Art Museum Brandeis University Waltham Massachusetts The Yale University Art Gallery New Haven Connecticut Selected Bibliography Ashton, Dore “Show at Zabriskie” Arts & Architecture April 1961 Ashton, Dore “New York Exhibitions” Arts & Architecture January 1963 Ashton, Dore “Show at the Martha Jackson Gallery” Arts & Archiitecture April 1966 Ashton, Dore “Lester Johnson’s Strolling Players” Arts April 1982 Baldwin, Roger “Connecticut Painter 7+7+7” Art New England March 1983 Berlind, Robert “Lester Johnson at Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer” Art in America January-February 1978 Bass, Ruth “Lester Johnson” Art News September 1980 Bass, Ruth “Lester Johnson” Art News October 1982 Bass, Ruth “Lester Johnson” Art News December 1983 Campbell, Lawrence “Lester Johnson in the Bowery” Art News February 1964 Campbell, Lawrence “Lester Johnson Paints a Picture” Arts Magazine March 1961 Campbell, Lawrence “Lester Johnson at Gimpel Weitzenhoffer” Art in America Summer 1982 Campbell, Lawrence “American Figurative Expressionism” Art in America December 1982 Campbell, Lawrence “Going On Instinct” Art in America February 1984 Chernow, Burt (introduction) and Rosenberg, Harold (statement) Lester Johnson Paintings 1970-74 New York: David Anderson Publications 1974 Chernow, Burt “Lester Johnson” Arts Magazine November 1977 Chernow, Burt “Lester Johnson and the Kaleidoscopic Crowd” Intellect Magazine April 1977 Colby, Jay Hakanson “Three Graces Walking” The Detroit News June 7 1981 Colt, Priscilla “Remarks of the Figure and Lester Johnson” Art International January 1964 “Combining Man and the Monument” Time Magazine February 18 1966 Flash Art “Lester Johnson” January 1984 Fleischmann, Eric “A Master’s Telling Retrospective” New Haven Register April 21 1991 Giuliano, Charles “Provincetown: It Figures Art New England July/August 1985 Gruen, John “Lester Johnson” New York Magazine March 21 1971 Gruen, John “The New Road to Classical Purity” New York Herald Tribune February 6 1966 Iovine, Julie “Connectiicut Painters at the Wadsworth” Connecticut Magazine February 1983 Kramer, Hilton “Lester Johnson’s New Painting on View” The New York Times February 19 1966 Kramer, Hilton The New York Times February 8 1969 Mathew, Ray “Johnson’s Myths” Art World April 22 1982 Mellow, James “A Movement of Strength in Art by Lester Johnson” The New York Times March 3 1973 Parrino, George “A Talk with Lester Johnson” The Soho Weekly News March 13 1975 Ratcliff, Carter “Lester Johnson” Art International August-September 1981 Ratcliff, Carter “The Short Life of the Sincere Stroke” Art in America January 1983 Raynor, Vivian “A Quartet of Styles in New Haven” The New York Times April 20 1986 Rosenberg, Harold Art on the Edge Macmillan Publishing New York 1975 Rosenberg, Harold Artwork and Pac kages Horizon Press New York 1969 Rosenberg, Harold “Images and Counterforce” Art News February 1966 Rosenberg, Harold “Johnson’s Men” The New Yorker February 18 1966 Russell, John “Lester Johnson’s Outgoing People” The New York Times November 4 1977 Sandler, Irving The New York School: The Painters and Sculptors of the Fifties Harper & Row New York 1978 Schwartz, Barry The New Humanism Praeger Publishers New York 1974 Temin, Christine “Perspectives” The Boston Globe November 18 1982 Thomsen, Barbara “The Individual as a Crowd: Lester Johnson’s Recent Paintings” Art in America November-December 1973 Witbeck, Doris “Artists Judge Peers” The Hartford Courant January 14 1983 Weiss, Jim “Lester Johnson” Issue 4 Fall 1985 Zabriskie, George director Lester with narration by the artist New York: Brandon Films Zimmer, William “Three Exhibitis at the Aldrich” The New York Times February 26 1984 Zimmer, William “Three Exhibitis at the Aldrich” The New York Times February 26 1984