Lamentation 1944

William H. Johnson made this painting, Lamentation, with a raw directness that hits you in the gut. The whole scene is rendered in earthy browns and ochres, punctuated by the shocking blue of the crucified figure’s cross, which really pulls you in. I think about Johnson wrestling with the image, trying to get it down, not fussing too much with the details, but getting the emotional tone just right. It's like he’s channeling something deep. The paint looks thin, almost stained into the canvas, which adds to this feeling of immediacy, like he’s capturing a fleeting moment of intense grief. The figures are simplified, almost iconic, and that raw, almost crude style, is so powerful. Johnson was part of a generation of artists who were looking back to folk art for inspiration, trying to find a more authentic way of expressing themselves, before the art world got too codified. You see that same drive in other painters like Marsden Hartley or even Bob Thompson. It reminds us that artists are always in conversation with each other, riffing on ideas and pushing the boundaries of what painting can be.