Tim Johnson was a consummate painter, an artist’s artist. Technically skilled, he wrote novels in the form of irreverent portraits. While the reopening of Touchstone Gallery is exciting for artists and art lovers alike, it also serves as a reminder of what we lost when Tim, a Touchstone member for more than ten years, passed away in December 2020. Tribute to Tim Johnson, on view through October 31, 2021, documents his evolution as an artist with a progression of works ranging from pieces from his days at the University of Kentucky to his last completed painting. Tim was a prolific painter, and he apparently saved everything he didn’t sell or gift. It is fascinating to see the evolution of his work from the somewhat tentative figures in neutral tones of his college days to the brash, yet nuanced, colorful paintings he became known for as a mature artist.
Tim the Storyteller
Tim’s work drew on his deep knowledge of mythology, history, the Bible and fables. “They weren’t just portraits. They were also stories, human stories about human conditions,” says Gale Wallar, a Touchstone colleague who cataloged his work and curated the show. “Many of the references are a little gory. He was not necessarily trying to tell a story that had a happy ending,” Wallar says. Nevertheless, his paintings were often whimsical. His quirky sense of humor found expression in detail, such as the marked resemblance to Dennis the Menace of a young David, modeled by his nephew, pictured shortly after felling Goliath.
Storytelling remained a focus of much of his work throughout his career. “One of the early paintings from his student days is a copy of Titian’s Danae, a female nude being embraced by Jupiter, who came in the form of a cloud. A more recent painting is a portrait of himself, also being embraced by Jupiter as a cloud. There is a continuity in his story-telling interests, but his later style is very different.” As Tim evolved as an artist, he came to embrace vivid color and often built compositions around a favored brilliant shade of blue.
Tim the Artist
One of his technical strengths was his ability to render interesting and accurate flesh tones. He used multiple layers of overlapping color blocks, including a green often seen in Renaissance portraits, to define the shapes and planes of his subject. Less than two weeks after brain surgery, he was in the gallery, adjusting the greens on a piece already hung for his solo show and lamenting imperfections no one else could see.
Rosa Vera and Shelley Lowenstein, Touchstone colleagues, helped organize and preserve his works, which another colleague, Jeanne Garant, stored in her studio pending the current tribute. “Tim lived in a small studio apartment that was packed with his work. He kept his easel under his bed and his materials in an enormous red toolchest,” she said. “It was impossible to move furniture because of all the art.” The contents of the toolbox were donated to Art Enables, a non-profit organization that provides art supplies to schools. At the artist’s request, paintings that weren’t claimed by family or friends are being sold with the proceeds to benefit the Touchstone Foundation for the Arts.
Tim was known for being his own favorite model. He said that, aside from always being available, he liked to paint himself because he could always position his body exactly as he wished to paint it. But he also drew frequently on his family friends to help him tell his stories, and although the portraits were not necessarily flattering due to the subject matter, his friends were happy to oblige.
Tim the Man
“He had a very tight group of friends who loved and supported him,” Vera says. “Many of them came by the apartment when we were going through things to reminisce and mourn.” Even people who didn’t know Tim stopped to view his paintings as they were lined up along the hall of his building, waiting to be transported, and were touched. “The human heart can be something wonderful, and Tim brought out feelings in people he didn’t even know.”
Tim Johnson was an artist. He was our friend. He made us smile. We will remember him. We will miss him.
For information about purchasing Tim Johnson’s work, please contact Touchstone Gallery Director Ksenia Orol, info@touchstonegallery.com. Proceeds from sales to benefit Touchstone Foundation for the Arts.