Folk Wisdom and Artistic Appropriation
Folk Wisdom and Artistic Appropriation
What is the relevance of Johnson's success as both a Harlem Renaissance artist and a WPA artist for understanding the myth of racial tolerance? This question involves several issues pertaining to the relationship between elitism in art and the politics of representation.
When Locke advocated the appropriation of black folk culture by artists, he had a European model of nationalistic art in mind. Harlem would be a Mecca for the black renaissance in art just as Dublin and Prague were centers where European artists gather to mine their national folk cultures. But what about the excavation of folk culture by intellectuals, black or white? Johnson's art is not to be confused with the folk expression of the Africans or the Indians, whose technique and imagery he appropriated. But if Johnson was black and Indian, why should we construe his use of folk techniques as an appropriation? Both Locke and Bufano expected modern art to rely on folk cultures as a source of inspiration for contemporary ideas. When Johnson began working in the black Oaxacan clay used by the Zapotec Indians he was not interested in making pottery, or sculptures that were a part of their traditions. Neither were any of the African masks in his series meant to be part of the African folk tradition. Rather, he aimed to incorporate ancient principles of aesthetics regarding sculptural forms into a transformative practice by combining Western with non-Western elements. This hybrid form is not to be confused with any of the folk forms from which it is derived. It is in this sense that we can best understand Johnson's appeal to folk sources, which he appropriated in a manner similar to the appropriation of African art forms by European artists such as Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso and Amedeo Modigliani .
There is a certain amount of ambivalence that can be associated with Johnson's appropriation of folk art, as well as his representations of Southern black folk. He was quite aware of the political thrust of his images of African-Americans in an era of legal segregation and racial oppression. For this reason he subscribed to Locke's philosophy and attempted to create a new black aesthetic in contemporary American art. As I have already noted, his peer acceptance by other bay area artist bodes well for the social objective Locke had set for the renaissance artists. Johnson was a perfect instance of Locke's notion of cultural democracy whereby American artists of all races are at liberty to draw on native folk sources for raw materials and inspiration. The problem with this notion, as we have seen in connection with Bufano's philosophy, is that the inclusion of African-American images in mainstream art is quite compatible with the denial of social equality to African-Americans.
--excerpted from "Black Consciousness in the Art of Sargent Johnson" by Tommy Lott, in Reclaiming San Francisco: History, Politics, Culture, A City Lights Anthology, 1998