Lot 496: Ink on Paper, Portrait, Patricia Johanson, 1958

This portrait is of a man's face, done in black India Ink. It is signed Johanson, dated 1958, then signed and dated for who and when it was given: Bennington College, 1962.

16.5 x 14.0"

India Ink, Paper

1958

Some toning of the paper, going from the brace-board, across the piece, to the other side of the preservation board.

Johanson’s enthusiasm for nature and for art began in childhood. She grew up in New York City, where she spent countless hours in Frederick Law Olmsted parks. Her mother, a former model, introduced her to the arts. As a high school student, she excelled at music, but at Bennington College (1958–1962) she was a painting major. Through her contacts at Bennington, Johanson became part of the 1960s New-York art-world. Her Bennington instructor, Tony Smith (sculptor), was a close friend and her art-history professor, Eugene Goossen, a mentor and later her husband. At this time she met fellow-artists Kenneth Noland, David Smith (sculptor), Helen Frankenthaler, Franz Kline, Philip Guston and Joseph Cornell. She also came to know art-critic Clement Greenberg and visionary architect Frederick John Kiesler. Johanson earned a Master’s in art history at Hunter College, New York in 1964. There she studied with Tony Smith, Eugene Goossen and Ad Reinhardt and met fellow art students Robert Morris, Carl Andre and Robert Barry. At this time, she worked as a researcher for New York publisher Benjamin Blom on a compendium of 18th and 19th century American artists. The project led to an opportunity to catalogue the work of Georgia O'Keeffe, who became an important mentor. Her husband, art critic and historian Eugene Goossen, died in 1997.