Lester Johnson, Frontal Street Scene

Description

This lithograph is immediately identifiable as the work of Lester Johnson (1919-2010) .
The print is titled “Frontal Street Scene.” … more This lithograph is immediately identifiable as the work of Lester Johnson (1919-2010) .
The print is titled “Frontal Street Scene.” It was published in 1970 by Collector’s Press. The print is signed in the lower right, titled in the lower center and numbered “Bon a tirer” in the lower left. The print measures 22 x 30 inches and is on Arches paper. It is in excellent, never framed condition. Here are some details about the print:

Marks: Lower left blindstamp -- mark of Ernest DeSoto, the printer
Lower left blindstamp -- mark of Collector's Press
I am not certain of the size of the edition. It could be as small as 20 plus proofs, based on an image from the Provincetown Art Association, which also owns this print.


About the artist:
Lester Johnson (January 27, 1919 – May 30, 2010) was an American artist. He was a figurative expressionist and member of the Second Generation of the New York School. The subject of much of his work was the human figure.

In New York, Johnson exhibited at the Martha Jackson Gallery, Zabriskie Gallery, Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer, and James Goodman Gallery as well as having been included in group shows at the Guggenheim, The Whitney, Museum of Modern Art, and Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was elected a member to both the American Academy of Arts & Letters and National Academy of Design.

Johnson lived and worked in New York City (on the Bowery), Springs, Milford (CT), Greenwich (CT), and Southampton, NY.

Lester Johnson was born in 1919 in Minneapolis, Minnesota; the youngest of seven and grandchild of Swedish homesteaders. In 1947, after studying at the Minneapolis School of Art, and the St. Paul Art School, he came to New York City. He shared a home with Larry Rivers. He married Josephine Valenti, an art historian, in 1949, and moved into a house on 2nd Ave and 2nd Street – which was shared with Wolf Kahn. After moving uptown, he continued to work downtown. In 1961, he briefly left the city for an artist-in-residence position at Ohio State. After returning, and while sharing a studio with Philip Pearlstein, he was invited by Jack Tworkov to teach at Yale. He accepted and was a professor at Yale from 1964 until 1989.

Awards and Prizes:

2004 Elected Member, American Academy of Arts and Letters
2003 American Academy of Arts and Letters, Jimmy Ernst Award
1987 Elected Associate, National Academy of Design
1987 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

Selected Public Collections

Baltimore Museum of Art
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University
Art Institute of Chicago
Detroit Institute of Arts
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence
Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC. less