Malvin Gray Johnson

MALVIN GRAY JOHNSON (1896 - 1934) Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. Oil on canvas, 1928-29. 1245x735 mm; 49x29 inches. Signed "GrayJohnson ©" in oil, lower right. Provenance: the artist, New York; purchased by John Wilson Lamb,1929; thence by descent to the current owner. Exhibited: Negro Art, The Harmon Foundation, New York, 1929;traveling exhibition to 11 U.S. cities, February - August 1929;Climbing Up the Mountain: The Modern Art of Malvin Gray Johnson,North Carolina Central University Museum, Durham, NC, Februrary 8 -April, 19, 2002; Challenge of the Modern: African-American Artists1925-1945, Volume I, The Studio Museum in Harlem, January 23 -March 30, 2003, with the exhibition label on the frame back.Climbing Up the Mountain: The Modern Art of Malvin Gray Johnson wasthe first retrospective for the artist and the first time thisnewly re-discovered painting had been shown in over 60 years. Illustrated: Art Digest; The Washington Post; Climbing Up theMountain: The Modern Art of Malvin Gray Johnson, North CarolinaCentral University Museum, Durham, NC, p. 58; Challenge of theModern: African-American Artists 1925-1945, Volume I, The StudioMuseum in Harlem, p. 106, pl. 43. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot is not only Malvin Gray Johnson's bestknown work, but is also a very important painting in the history ofAfrican-American visual art at the beginning of the 20th century.This is also his first painting to come to auction. Largely due tohis sudden death at the age of 38, his works are extremelyscarce--his 2002 retrospective located 60 paintings and drawings.Johnson's Swing Low, Sweet Chariot became one of the first modernpaintings to be recorded in the canon of African-American art andculture. It launched his career, and placed him alongside AaronDouglas and Henry Ossawa Tanner as one of the greatAfrican-American painters at that time. According to Mary Ann Calo,Swing Low, Sweet Chariot was "widely celebrated as evidence of theblack artist's potential to make a distinctive contribution toAmerican culture" with "near ecstatic" critical response. Themonthly Art Digest described the painting "as a significant artworld event...worthy of the highest traditions in Americanpainting," and compared its mystical and spiritual themes to AlbertP. Ryder. The evident influences of Tanner and the Renaissance weregenerally overlooked due to the resonance of the painting'semotional and spiritual subject. This painting visually portraysAfrican-American spirituals as popularized by such performers asPaul Robeson and the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Johnson himself best describes his intentions in the January 1929Art Digest article: "I have tried to show the escape of emotions which the plantationslaves felt after being held down all day by the grind of labor andthe consciousness of being bound. Set free from their tasks by theend of the day and the darkness they have gone from their cabin tothe river's edge and are calling upon their God for the freedomwhich they long." Calo pp 140-41; Francis pp. 57-63. Estimate $200,000-250,000