Biography
Avery Fischer Johnson had a multifaceted career. He was, at various times, a watercolorist, an arts administrator, an illustrator and a teacher. His accomplishments earned him membership in the National Academy of Design and the American Watercolor Society, and his work was exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Academy of Design and the American Watercolor Society.
Johnson was born in Wheaton, IL in 1906. He attended Wheaton College, receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1933. That year he worked on the Mississippi diorama for the Century of Progress Expostion in Chicago. In 1934, he and Stanley Woods were chosen by the Florida Emergency Relief Administration to form the Key West Artists Program. The idea was to clean up a decaying city, produce paintings that extolled the beauty of the area, and advertise Key West as a tourist destination. The initial work of Woods and Johnson was exhibited at the Key West Chamber of Commerce in 1934 and formed the basis for tens of thousands of postcards distributed in an advertising campaign. One of Johnson's watercolors was selected to be hung in the White House and was exhibited to the public at the Corcoran Gallery.
Johnson married Nina Gertrude Ryder in 1935. His mural "Dancing Girls" was painted for Raul's Club in Key West and later given to the Key West Art and Historical Society. Other work of Johnson's was part of a travelling exhibit in 1936.
Over the next half dozen years Johnson completed six Post Office murals: Marseilles, IL (1938), Liberty, IN (1939), Bordertown, NJ (1940), Lake Village, AR (1941), Catonsville, MD (1942), and North Bergen, NJ (1942). During this period Johnson also served as Head of Federal Arts Projects in the Virgin Islands. His government service continued in World War II, with work for the Overseas Branch of the Office of War Information. Johnson was their Art Director in North Africa and was on the Art and Production Staff for Balkan Publications in Rome.
In 1939 Johnson illustrated the book "Mouse-Knees" by William Chapman White. He illustrated "African folktales in Wakaima and the Clay Man" by Ernest Kalibala and Mary Gould Davis in 1946, a Robert Louis Stevenson story in 1947, and a story by Loring MacKaye in 1955.
From 1940-1970 Johnson was a Painting Instructor at the Montclair (NJ) Art Museum. He also taught at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts from 1947-1960, where he was Head of the Pictorial Illustration Department and an Instructor in Illustration, Watercolor, and Mural Painting. From 1966-1968 he wrote an art column for Suburban Life magazine. And his work appeared in Factory & Modern Manufacturing from 1967-1971. Johnson died in 1990 in Hackettstown, NJ.
Critical Analysis
Johnson's primary medium was watercolor. He painted many seascapes and worked to illustrate a number of books. His watercolors were often bright and lively; his seascapes were evocative of the scenery he was familiar with from the Virgin Islands and the Florida Keys.
Murals
- Lake Village, Arkansas - Post Office: Lake Country Wild Life
- Liberty, Indiana - Post Office: Autumn Fields
- Catonsville, Maryland - Post Office: Incidents in the History of Catonsville
- Bordentown, New Jersey - Post Office: Skating on Bonaparte's Pond
- North Bergen, New Jersey - Post Office: Purchase of Territory of North Bergen from the Indians
References
- Avery F. Johnson (Smithsonian American Art Museum).
- Avery Fischer Johnson (askART).
- Avery Fischer Johnson (Prabook).
- Avery Johnson papers,1938-1957 (Archives West).
- Avery Johnson Wins in Mural Contest (Virgin Island Daily News).
- Coping with Depression: WPA Artists in Key West (Key West Art and Historical Society).
- Fred Frankel, Johnson, Avery - Key West, Artists of Old Florida October 23 (2023).