Sargent Johnson

(1888-1967)

Hippopotamus 6 1/2in high (16.5cm high), on a 2in high (5.1cm high) semi-gloss rosewood base

Footnotes

Provenance
Henry and Elaine Attias, Los Angeles, California, acquired circa 1955.
By descent to the late owner.

Literature
Albany Institute of History and Art, The Negro Artist Comes of Age: A National Survey of Contemporary American Artists, exhibition catalogue, Albany, New York, 1945, n.p., no. 32, another example illustrated.
The Oakland Museum, Sargent Johnson: Retrospective, exhibition catalogue, Oakland, California, 1971, p. 22, another example illustrated.
L. LeFalle-Collins, J. Wilson, Sargent Johnson: African American Modernist, exhibition catalogue, San Francisco, California, 1998, pp. 56, 84, pl. 13, no. 22, another example illustrated.

Sargent Johnson produced his most prolific works during the 1930s as he was emerging into his late period and embracing a style that was a reaction to Mexican and African art as much as it was to the advent of Abstract Expressionism rising in popularity among his contemporaries in the Bay Area of San Francisco, California. In 1939 through the assistance of Federal Art Project (FAP) supervisor, Hilaire Hiler (1898-1966), Johnson was named a supervisor on the Aquatic Park Bathouse project in San Francisco, a distinction only one other African American was awarded during the lifetime of the FAP. He was tasked with decorating the entrance to the Bathhouse and designed and carved in green Vermont slate scenes of work and play by the water, as well as colorful mosaics of fish on the veranda walls. He concentrated heavily on abstracted forms in his designs and tested the limits of his abilities as a modeler. The project ultimately led Johnson to a deeper interest in animal subjects and in ceramics that, when glazed, provide the same elevating qualities to line and form as glazed tile. Ceramics also provided Johnson with a connection to the craft movements in Mexican and African cultures from which he often sought inspiration.

During the same year as his work on the Aquatic Art project, Johnson was also commissioned under the FAP to create seven animals in cast green and gray terrazzo for the childcare center playground of the Sunnydale Housing Project. For the project, he designed and constructed a camel, burro, grasshopper, duck, hippopotamus, squirrel, and an elephant. Each sculpture measured approximately 26 inches long, 24 inches high and 12 inches wide, and were colored in varying shades of coral, green, and gray. The commission may not have been realized until a later date, as the scale drawings that have survived for the commission are dated several years after Johnson was initially given the commission. The finished sculptures no longer exist, however, several scale drawings and ceramic models for the elephant and the burro from the project have survived. The present work completed in an alluring glazed ceramic was likely conceived from this project. Johnson's design for Hippopotamus is reminiscent of his designs for the Aquatic Park Bathhouse comprised of simple fluid lines and minimal representational elements. The animal appears as a singular form with the only identifiers visible in its facial features and the arched line extending along its back. Johnson interestingly describes the subject's surroundings with the design of tall grass and a small bird inscribed on the sculpture's sides. Hippopotamus is a unique and superb example from Johnson's artistic oeuvre that beautifully exhibits his artistic concerns at this time in his career.