Edwin Boyd Johnson

Edwin Boyd Johnson (November 4, 1904 – 1968) was an American painter, designer, muralist and photographer.

Airmail, a fresco painted by Johnson in 1937

Edwin Boyd Johnson was born on November 4, 1904, in Watertown, Tennessee,.[1] Not long thereafter, the family moved to Nashville, TN, where he attended grade and high school.[2] After graduating, he enrolled in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1925-1930) . He also studied at the National Academy of Design in New York City.[1] The Bryan Lathrop Foreign Traveling Scholarship of $1500 (1931)[3] enabled him to study fresco painting at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna, the Atelier de Fresque of Paris, and the Ecole Egyptienne des Beaux Arts in Alexandria, Egypt.[1]

He was a member of the Chicago Society of Artists, and during the 1930s and early 1940s, he participated in many of their exhibits.[4] He was the recipient of several awards, among them the Joseph N. Eisendrath Prize for "Nude" in 1938 and, in 1940, the William M.R. French Memorial Gold Medal from the Art Institute Alumni Association for his painting "Mother and Child".[5] As a participant in the government's Alaskan project, he painted pictures of that state to promote protection of the wilderness.[6] One of those, "Mt. Kimball", hangs in the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center.[7][8]

While Johnson painted in both water colors and oils, he is best known for his murals, which were funded by the WPA Federal Art Project. These include the recently restored Airmail, in the Melrose Park Library (Chicago - 1937),[9][10][11] The Old Days, in the Tuscola, IL, post office (1941), People of the Soil in Dickson, TN, which, although photographed for the 1996 book Tennessee Post Office Murals, is no longer open to view.[1][12] and the City Hall mural in Sioux Falls, SD (1936).[13]

He was an honorary member of the United States Armed Forces in World War II.[14]

After the war he took up residence in Mexico City, where he turned his artistic focus to photography.[15]

He died in 1968.[1]

References
  1. Hull, Howard (1996). Tennessee Post Office murals. Johnson City, Tenn.: Overmountain Press. p. 54. 57. ISBN 9781570720307.
  2. "None".
  3. Jewett, Eleanor (June 13, 1931). "Art Institute Students Win Prizes at Show". Chicago Tribune.
  4. "Art Institute of Chicago". The Art Institute of Chicago.
  5. "Chicago and NY Divide Art Honors". Oakland Tribune. 29 December 1940.
  6. Brinkley, Douglas (2011). The quiet world saving Alaska's wilderness kingdom, 1879-1960 (1st ed.). New York: Harper. p. 315. ISBN 9780062035332.
  7. Woodward, Kesler E. (1993). Painting in the North : Alaskan art in the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. Seattle [u.a.]: Univ. of Washington Press. p. 103. ISBN 9780295973197.
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-06-29. Retrieved 2013-06-12.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. "Illinois New Deal Art | WPAmurals.com".
  10. Marbella, Fidencio; Flanagan, Margaret (2009). Melrose Park. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Pub. p. 127. ISBN 9780738560939.
  11. http://www.melroseparklibrary.org/fresco
  12. "Dickson, TN New Deal Art | WPAmurals.com".
  13. Miller, John E. (2006). The WPA Guide to South Dakota. Minnesota Historical Society. p. 156. ISBN 9780873515528.
  14. Arts, Dallas Museum of Fine (June 1, 1944). "Catalogue of the Twenty-Fourth Annual Exhibition of the Southern States Art League". 24th Annual Exhibition of the Southern States Art League, May 7–June 4, 1944, Dallas, Texas.
  15. "Prize Winner in the Photography 1951 International Picture Contest (Black and White)". Popular Photography: 127 and 212. December 1951.
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