Futuristic Drawing by Anne Johnston

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The world has encountered numerous architectural masterpieces, from medieval Europe's Gothic splendors to today's avant-garde marvels. Sometimes, art seeks not … Read more The world has encountered numerous architectural masterpieces, from medieval Europe's Gothic splendors to today's avant-garde marvels. Sometimes, art seeks not to mimic reality but to form its starkly distinct version. This is evident in Anne Johnston's original work, which envisions an interchangeable world-city set in a not-so-distant future. Johnston's cityscape is far from modern-day Europe's celebrated elegance and charm. It embodies the notion that architecture is a mirror of society, albeit an anticipation of a grim future yet to occur. This universe is decidedly Orwellian, evoking feelings of insignificance and solitude.

Johnston's black and white drawing employs monolithic blocks with walled windows to shape its skyline. The structures disregard the aesthetic sensibilities, focusing instead on containment and rigidity. Simple round shapes and angles, devoid of decoration or filigree, emphasize functionality over adornment. This minimalist architecture imbues a sense of urban dictatorship, a total disregard for individuality—much akin to sketches of high modernism and brutalist architecture that dominated the mid-20th century.

This futuristic cityscape offers a vision of our potential future— a world where sprawling metropolises no longer celebrate the human spirit but suffocate it. The vehicles are diminutive; human beings appear as ants, almost lost amidst the geometric structures. They become mere cogs in a large, impersonal machine, an accurate depiction of the human condition separated from nature when dwarfed by structures of power and authority.

Anne Johnston was a commercial artist working on the South Bay peninsula in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1940s, she attended California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, where she experimented with various modernist approaches to drawing and painting. Very little of this experimental work survived. See less