Sargent Claude Johnson
Past eventFeb. 17, 2024—May 20, 2024
MaryLou and George Boone Gallery
The sweeping exhibition of Johnson’s powerful works spans the Great Depression to the Civil Rights Movement and includes masks, sculptures, and monumental public commissions. It will be the first exhibition devoted to Johnson in over 25 years.
On view will be The Huntington’s Head of a Boy (ca. 1928) and monumental carved redwood Organ Screen (1933–34), which was created for the auditorium of the California School for the Blind in Berkeley, California. In this exhibition, the screen—which had been out of public view from 1980 to 2011, when The Huntington acquired it—will be reunited with the other parts of Johnson’s California School for the Blind commission for the first time in over four decades.
Johnson’s work speaks volumes about the fragility of our shared cultural heritage and the critical role that institutions like The Huntington play in safeguarding this heritage for future generations. With this exhibition, The Huntington is making the full range of Johnson's work accessible to the artists, researchers, and audiences of today.
View or download large print booklet. This resource includes all in-gallery text in the exhibition in an order that follows the layout of the galleries. It can be used with a text-to-screen reader program or printed before you visit the exhibition.
California School for the Blind Commission
In 1933, Sargent Johnson began a monumental architectural installation for the California School for the Blind in Berkeley. It was commissioned by the federally sponsored Public Works of Art Project—part of the New Deal. Johnson carved and decorated large redwood sculptures in a dramatic Art Deco style that were installed in the school’s auditorium, where students staged musical and theatrical performances.
When the school moved to a new campus, the surviving pieces were dispersed. Now belonging to four institutions—The Huntington, the California School for the Blind, the African American Museum and Library at Oakland, and UC Berkeley—the various parts of the commission were reunited for the first time in over four decades.
This exhibition is made possible through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art and is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Generous funding for this exhibition is also provided by an anonymous foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, the Philip and Muriel Berman Foundation, the Steve Martin Fund for American Art, and The Ahmanson Foundation Exhibition and Education Endowment.
Exhibition Catalog
SARGENT CLAUDE JOHNSONIn this catalog, leading scholars examine Johnson’s artistic evolution and offer fresh perspectives on his work. From sculptures of underrepresented subjects to majestic architectural commissions—including a celebrated mural reproduced in lavish gatefold format—the book positions Johnson’s oeuvre within an expansive framework of global modernism.
Audio Tour
SARGENT CLAUDE JOHNSONDownload the Huntington Digital Guide and listen to Chief Curator of American Art, Dennis Carr, discuss this special exhibition of 43 works dedicated to the work of Sargent Claude Johnson, the California artist whose uplifting portrayals of people of color made him the West Coast’s key connection to the Harlem Renaissance.
Sargent Johnson’s Athletics
Video by César Rubio Photography
Editing by Antonio Iannarone
Run time: 6 minutes, 2 seconds
Video has no sound.