Artist

Johnson Antonio

born near Lake Valley, NM 1931
Media - antonio_johnson.jpg - 89881
Photo by Chuck Rosenak, courtesy of the Chuck and Jan Rosenak research material, ca. 1987-1998, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
Born
Lake Valley, New Mexico, United States
Biography

A former railroad worker, this Navajo artist also spent years herding sheep and goats in northern New Mexico's thinly populated Bisti region. He was in his early fifties when he began carving small sculptures from the local cottonwood. By carving secular human figures, he consciously violated a Navajo taboo, but his need to portray the Native American society in which he spent his life proved stronger than tradition.

Tom Patterson Contemporary Folk Art: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (New York and Washington, D.C.: Watson-Guptill Publications, in cooperation with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2001)

Works by this artist (1 item)

William Wendt, Days of Sunshine, 1925, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Henry Ward Ranger through the National Academy of Design, 1956.10.4
Days of Sunshine
Date1925
oil on canvas
Not on view