Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum-FIU opens "Fighters for Freedom: William H. Johnson Picturing Justice"

The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum-FIU announces the opening of its first new exhibition of the fall 2024 season titled Fighters for Freedom: William H. Johnson Picturing Justice. This exhibition features nearly 30 works by the titular artist, which portray key figures of the social justice movement across history.

During the mid-1940s William H. Johnson (b. Florence, SC 1901- d. Central Islip, NY 1970) developed a deep admiration for individuals who devoted their lives to the cause of freedom in the U.S. and abroad. Working from newspaper photographs and past images, he created a pantheon of historic and contemporary leaders who fought for the freedom of African Americans. Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, Haile Selassie, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, and Abraham Lincoln are a few of the internationally recognized figures who appear in Johnson’s paintings in his 1945 series, Fighters for Freedom.

"Paramount to our museum’s mission is to welcome exhibitions and artists from across cultural backgrounds to tell interesting and important narratives from unique perspectives,” said Miriam Machado, interim director of the Frost Art Museum. “William H. Johnson’s work tells the stories of many movers and shakers in social justice, and the Frost Art Museum is privileged to tell their stories with his powerful art."

Fighters for Freedom: William H. Johnson Picturing Justice is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum with generous support from Art Bridges, Faye and Robert Davidson, the William R. Kenan Jr. Endowment Fund, the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, the Whitney and Elizabeth MacMillan Foundation, the Margery and Edgar Masinter Exhibition Endowment, and the Sara Roby Foundation.

For more information on Fighters for Freedom: William H. Johnson Picturing Justice, please visit the Frost Art Museum’s website here.