The Blind Singer

The screenprint, Blind Singer, is the first work by William Henry Johnson to enter the collection of the Harvard Art Museum. After studying at the National Academy of Design in New York under Charles Hawthorne in the 1920s, Johnson traveled to France where he began working in a less academic style. After a brief return to New York where he experienced intense racism, he returned to Europe in 1930 and began his travels through northern Europe-Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. He remained in Scandinavia until 1938 when political unrest prompted another return to New York. Exposure to the Expressionism of such northern European artists as Nolde and Munch had a lasting influence on his work. Upon his return to the US, Johnson took a WPA job teaching at the Harlem Community Art Center, where he was introduced to the technique of screen printing.