Family Day at the Florence County Museum
We are back in person! From toddlers to grandparents, Family Days at the Florence County Museum are sure to offer something for everyone. Join us the second Saturday of each month from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm for Family Day at the FCM. No registration is required. Free of charge.
Happy Birthday, William H. Johnson! (1901-1970)
Join us as we celebrate Florence native, William Henry Johnson. Help us kickstart his birthday-week by joining the museum team as we create portraits in his signature style!
Florence native artist William Henry Johnson created portraits of family, friends, and community members during his visits home to Florence in the 1930s and in 1940s. Participants will design a relief print using Styrofoam to create a one-of-a-kind self-portrait inspired by the work of William H. Johnson.
About William H. Johnson
By almost any standard, William H. Johnson (March 18, 1901–1970) can be considered a major American artist. He produced hundreds of works in a virtuosic, eclectic career that spanned several decades as well as several continents. It was not until recently, however, that his work began to receive the attention it deserves.
Born in Florence, South Carolina to Alice and Henry Johnson, he moved to New York at age seventeen upon graduating from Wilson High school. Working a variety of jobs, he saved enough money to pay for an art education at the prestigious National Academy of Design. His mastery of the academy’s rigorous standards gained him both numerous awards and the respect of his teachers and fellow students.
Johnson spent the late 1920s in France, absorbing the lessons of modernism. As a result, his work became more expressive and emotional. During this same period, he met and fell in love with Danish artist Holcha Krake, whom he married in 1930.
Returning with Holcha to the U.S. in 1938, Johnson immersed himself in the traditions of Afro-America, producing work characterized by its stunning, eloquent, folk art simplicity. A Greenwich Village resident, he became a familiar, if somewhat aloof, figure on the New York art scene.
Although Johnson enjoyed a certain degree of success as an artist in this country and abroad, financial security remained elusive. Following his wife’s death in 1944, Johnson’s physical and mental health declined dramatically. In a tragic and drawn-out conclusion to a life of immense creativity, Johnson spent his last twenty-three years in a state hospital on Long Island.
