At age 17, he left the harsh confines of an economically challenged family in rural South Carolina, to pursue a formal education at the National Academy of Design in New York. Recognizing Johnson’s considerable talent, Charles Webster Hawthorne, one of Johnson’s benefactors, raised money for him to study in Europe in the 1920s. At that juncture in his career, Johnson had already had won numerous awards for his work at the Academy. His travel to Europe, however, was a transformative event in Johnson’s life and career.

During his tenure in Europe, Johnson traveled to France, Belgium, Denmark and other countries. Some of his works from the mid to late 1920s, especially those with richly impastoed surfaces and bold colors, reflect the influence of his travels and exposure to modernist tendencies. During his time in Europe, Johnson also married Danish artist Holcha Krake. The couple settled briefly in Kerteminde, a Danish fishing village, where they were well-received by the community.

The onset of the war in Europe and the impending Nazi invasion, forced Johnson and Krake to return to the United States in 1938. Back on American soil in Greenwich Village, New York, Johnson was enthusiastically welcomed by the African-American arts community. He was renowned for his work, which had at one point earned a coveted gold medal in a 1930’s Harmon Foundation show. Johnson’s mature style demonstrated a fluidity and mastery of several stylistic influences including Impressionism, Cubism, Fauvism, and German Expressionism, and an affected naivety.

“After the death of his wife in 1944, Johnson traveled to Florence, South Carolina, for a visit with his mother whom he had not seen in fourteen years. While in Florence, Johnson painted a number of portraits of family and friends and other images. However, his physical and mental health had begun to decline drastically to the point that Johnson was institutionalized at the state hospital on Long Island. He remained there for twenty-three years until his death in 1970. No longer prominent on the art scene, Johnson’s work almost suffered an unimaginable fate after almost being discarded to avoid storage fees.

Once one of the most highly regarded artists of his day, Johnson did not live to see posthumous escalation in the valuation of his work. However, today Johnson, along with Charles Alston, Henry Bannarn, Selma Burke, Gwendolyn Knight, Jacob Lawrence, and other Harlem Renaissance artists that he affiliated with, is considered one of the most important African-American artists of his generation.