Art-to-Art Palette Journal

Images of change-makers

Three Great Abolitionists, A. Lincoln, F. Douglass, J. Brown (detail), ca. 1945, oil on paperboard, 37 3/8 x 34 1/4 inches, William H. Johnson. Smithsonian American Art Museum. Gift of the Harmon Foundation, 1983.95.51

OKLAHOMA, OK (PNAN) – Opening Saturday, February 18, 2023, “Fighters for Freedom: William H. Johnson Picturing Justice” at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art will be an exhibition drawn entirely from the collection of more than 1,000 works by William H. Johnson given to the Smithsonian American Art Museum by the Harmon Foundation in 1967.

Artist Johnson painted his Fighters for Freedom series in the mid-1940s as a tribute to black activists, scientists, teachers and performers as well as international heads of state working to bring peace to the world even at a time when he acknowledged the realities of racism, violence, and oppression they faced and overcame.

Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver, Marian Anderson, and Mahatma Gandhi were some of this notable historical Fighters and others are less well-known individuals whose determination and sacrifice have been eclipsed over time.

More history on Johnson at:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Johnson_(artist)

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