Art Class - Three Men 1939

William H. Johnson made this painting, Art Class - Three Men, with oil paint on board. Look at the directness of Johnson's mark-making and the rawness of the application, those bold shapes defined by strong outlines, the unmodulated color, the expressive distortion of form. You can feel the speed and urgency, a kind of "get it down" attitude. I feel like Johnson is saying, let's not get bogged down in details, let's get right to the heart of the matter. Johnson reminds me that painting is always about invention, how we are always figuring it out as we go along. How it is never fixed, always open to new interpretations. The scene depicts an art class, and perhaps Johnson is inviting us to think about how we are taught to see and how we might unlearn those lessons.