Title: Folk Family
Artist: William H. Johnson
Date: ca. 1944
Location: Not on View
Dimensions: 26 1/8 x 19 7/8 in (66.2 x 50.4 cm)
The medium of the work: Oil on plywood
The museum displayed: Smithsonian American Art Museum
In this painting, William presents a family of four members that constitutes two children, a boy, and a girl. The woman, her daughter, and son appear to wear dresses while the father is wearing a short, t-shirt and a half jacket. Additionally, the man is holding a flag and behind them, stands a table. This art aims to present the lifestyle of African-American individuals during the era of 1944.
In his art, William uses certain elements of art and principles of design. To start with, he uses vertical lines on the background and horizontal lines on the floor. Similarly, the shape of their shoulders appears to be in a horizontal manner, starting from the father down to the daughter. Likewise, he uses a mixture of warm and cool colors in his art to express his feelings at that particular time. Finally, the medium used in this work is oil on plywood. This is evident through the shapes which the pictures took, they are arranged in a right angle, adjacent to each other.
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Overall, this art was aimed at displaying the humble life the Africa-American lived during the time of William H. Johnson. They all seem to wear "low-class" clothing with the father and son being barefooted. Through being barefooted while the wife and daughter were not, the artist wanted to show it is the responsibility of a man to take care of his family. The humble status of the family is further seen in the painting, where only the table appear in the picture and the only furniture probably owned by the family. Lastly, the man is holding a flag that maybe represents their country of origin and their patriotic nature.
References
Art in the Classroom, (2014), "Modernism, Primitivism/Folk Art". Retrieved from http://nsspta.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Johnson-William-Art-in-the-Classroom-February-2014.pdf
Jacci Howard Bear (2018), “ What Meanings Are Associated With the Various Colors”. Retrieved from https://www.lifewire.com/color-symbolism-information-1073947
" Smithsonian American Art Museum " Retrieved from https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/folk-family-11699
