?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 35,000 - $ 50,000
WILLIAM H. JOHNSON (1901 -1970) Self-Portrait.
Woodcut on pale cream wove paper, circa 1930-35. 225x225 mm; 8 7/8x8 7/8 inches, 3/8- to 1 inch margins. Signed and titled "Selvportret" in pencil, lower margin. A superb, inky impression of this very scarce print.
We have not found another known impression of this print. There are a total of only 5 woodcut self-portraits by Johnson in the collection of the Smithsonian Institute. One (Self-Portrait, 1971.140) appears to be a variant on similar paper, and was likely made at the same time.
Provenance: private collection, Denmark to 2005; thence to the current owner.
This extraordinary self-portrait is both an outstanding example of Expressionist printmaking, and a very rare, early work by an important African-American artist. While well known for the colorful visions of Harlem dancers and Southern sharecroppers in his screenprints, Johnson's other achievements in both printmaking and self-portraiture are now being recognized. Last year the Philadelphia Museum of Art toured a large exhibition of his works on paper from the Smithsonian, and devoted a large part of the exhibition to this period.
