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Chain Gang by William H. Johnson / American Art
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Chain Gang

ca. 1939 William H. Johnson Born: Florence, South Carolina 1901 Died: Central Islip, New York 1970 oil on plywood 45 3/4 x 38 1/2 in. (116.2 x 97.7 cm.) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of the Harmon Foundation 1967.59.675 Smithsonian American Art Museum
4th Floor, Luce Foundation Center



In this painting, enormous hands hold scythes, pickaxes, and shovels, symbolizing the brutal work of the chain gang. Johnson may have seen men like this when he was a child in South Carolina, but he might also have chosen this subject while working for the Works Progress Administration, where archivists worked to preserve the stories and songs of the gangs.

For more information about this work visit the Luce Foundation Center.


Keywords

Ethnic - African-American

Figure group

Figure(s) in exterior - rural

Landscape - road

Occupation - crime

State of being - evil - imprisonment

painting

paint - oil

wood - plywood

About William H. Johnson

Born: Florence, South Carolina 1901 Died: Central Islip, New York 1970

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William H. Johnson

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