Singing Saints

 

Sargent Claude Johnson

  1887 - 1967 (biography)

1940  

lithograph 

12 x 9 1/4" image 

pencil, lower right 

40 of 150  

pencil titled, lower left; editioned, lower left center. 

San Francisco Chronicle, March 17, 1940 

Warren's Olde Style ivory wove 

published 

San Francisco Chronicle; published in a series Contemporary Graphics 

BEPA101 

SOLD

This is the signature print for the African-American San Francisco artist Sargent Johnson who was best known as a sculptor. In 1940 the San Francisco Chronicle devised a “plan to bring western art to the western public” by presenting Contemporary Graphics to its readers. On Sunday, March 10, 1940, the series was launched with a three-quarter page devoted to the concept of purchasing original art by western artists. Contemporary Graphics presented twenty original prints in four series over four consecutive Sundays. Works by Herman Volz, George Gaethke, Ray Bertrand, Rueben Kadish, and Arthur Murphy comprised the first series. Sunday, March 17th, the Chronicle presented the second series that included works by Glen Wessels, Sargent Johnson, A. Ray Burrell, Beckford Young, and Theodore Polos. The third series, featured on March 24th, included works by Dong Kingman, Shirley Staschen, Clay Spohn, Edgar Dorsey Taylor and George Harris. The fourth and final series was presented to the public on March 31, 1940, with works by Otis Oldfield, Benjamin Cunningham, Mallette Dean, John Haley, and Erle Loran. With the exception of Mallette Dean's linoleum block print, all the prints were original lithographs. Each print was pencil signed and titled and the edition size was 150. The price for the individual works was $2.00 and they could be purchased in San Francisco from the following locales: the Chronicle, the City of Paris, O’Connor, Moffatt, Paul Elder, Schwabacher-Frey and Gumps. The series was a failure, $2.00 in 1940 was a lot of money for most people, and the Chronicle ceased the experiment. The unsold prints were dispersed amongst the publisher and the people involved in the project.