Family Portrait 1944

William H. Johnson painted this "Family Portrait" with what looks like gouache, or maybe tempera, because the colors are so flat, so matte. Look how he's making space. It’s wonky, right? Like, the kid on the dad's knee seems about to slide right off, and those purple-y legs under the mom are doing their own thing! It's like Johnson’s building a world from scratch. Check out the colors. The raw reds and greens, the lavender-gray walls...they don't quite gel, but they vibrate. And notice how the window rhymes with the polka dots on the mom’s dress? These connections give the whole thing a strange harmony. This painting feels like a memory, a little off-kilter but full of life. The painting reminds me of someone like Bob Thompson, who also makes art out of the raw stuff of life. With Johnson, it’s less about getting it "right" and more about feeling something real.