William Johnson was Afro-American artist who was born in South Carolina. He studied at the National Academy of Design in New York and later traveled to France where he was influenced by modernism. William Johnson taught in Harlem Community Art Center but spent 23 years in hospital in Long Island and died in 1970 as a result of complications from syphilis. Almost 1000 of William Johnson’s paintings were given by his family to the Harmon Foundation, who in turn gave donated them to the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
- https://www.reproduction-gallery.com/movement/african-american/