James W. Johnson: Outsider Artist From Lubbock, TX

It’s difficult to categorize the work of James W. Johnson. His career spans well over thirty years and his output is tremendous, and diverse. One element that seems vital to his work is that all of it is at least a little disturbing. Even his more solemn recent portraits have a detached quality in spite of the obvious intimacy, which sets the viewer at an emotional distance. Meanwhile his sense of photorealism has certainly evolved over the years. Traces of the neo-classical pop up intermittently, passing over to old school surrealism, and again to total pop psychedelia, finally giving way to Maxfield Parrish-esque skyscapes. All styles somehow flow between each other in wonderfully fluid motions.

The volume of documented work on his site is extensive; large gallery thumbnails give way to inner galleries, you come to realize that each collection, though sharing intrinsic elements with other works, stand alone. Clicking through and seeing the totality of his expressions can take some time, and is probably best not done at work; many of the images are just this side of pornographic, yet again, there is still a detachment that separates each individual work from going for the horny jugular; viewed as a whole, the total effect of the nude collections can be quite the antithesis of the erotic.

His themes span from socio/political commentary to observed behavior, to utterly surreal still life. Elements of other, more well-known artists run throughout, yet Johnson’s work stands firmly withdrawn from coveting the thunder of others. While it can often remind one of similar artists, it makes no overtures of trying not to; i.e., he shows no restraint and doesn’t appear to shy from the obvious similarities just for the sake of appearing as an individual. He simply lets go, and it seems like he’s having a lot of fun.

What a prolonged exposure to his greater body of work will impart, and why I think he’s so good, is essentially that Johnson has been able to shuffle off the shackles of the modern art world with all its judgment and evaluations. He smacks of fearlessness and indifference to convention, common mores dismissed.

An artist’s work never seems to be pure until he’s creating purely for himself, as Johnson clearly seems to be doing. That’s my take, anyway. I’d love to learn what others think after they look through his stuff.

The art of James W. Johnson [jameswjohnson.com]

(Image: “Surprised” cropped)