Howard Johnson
Born 1950, Worcester, MA, lives and works in Worcester, MA
Archangel of the Barrel, from the “Shape Shifter Series”, 1996, graphite, ink, adhesive bandages on found architectural plans, coated with acrylic gloss, Museum Purchase, 1997.18
Howard Johnson draws eternal symbols, figures, narrative vignettes and geometric diagrams as a means to combine an imaginary world with a rational one. References to Christianity, Judaism, and other religions juxtapose images of American pop culture in a riveting, twisting, and conscious way. In Archangel of the Barrel, Johnson works in a less experimental and more purposeful way. He uses the barrel as a symbol of poverty from the Great Depression. He combines the image of the barrel with apocalyptic images, incorporates drawing and collage, and applies overlapping Band-Aids to create personal symbolic shapes. Johnson’s apocalyptic screeds are not, however, chaotic ramblings. Their structural sophistication is evidenced by the artist’s compositional skills, based on his awareness of art historical precedents. Johnson’s drawings reveal the ultimate unity of all things, while simultaneously acknowledging an overwhelming terror of the void. The museum purchased this work from DeCordova’s exhibition 10 Artists/10 Visions: 1997.
