Robert Emory Johnson:
A Life in Art

Exhibition Statement

Robert Emory Johnson is a poet, an iconoclast, an inhabitant of this fast paced planet, ill-suited to the contemplative nature of poets and individualists. He is gracious, worldly and erudite; he has lived with fingers in a thousand pies, focused on all and none in particular—curious and wild as only Irishmen can be.

A non-conformist, desirous of being perceived as a solid citizen for the purposes of camouflage, he is also slippery when wet and dry in his humor. The canvas was always broader and wider than just a canvas; there was his work, then the work of serving others and there was Art—always Art—made everywhere, in all kinds of cultures and timeframes by human eyes and hands, and creative juices poured into objects of every kind, everywhere. And in between, the eruptions of personal volcanoes that come with living, the search never stopped—the search for answers always there no matter if definitive or temporary.

We could think of the artist as a pilot flying low, observing and recording and asking more and more complicated questions. In between these reconnaissance flights there were periods of “landing” when this or that series materialized, grew, prospered, multiplied and ran its course. Then he was off again exploring yet another corner of the mind or soul, or both, to land temporarily and engage in another visual conclusion. There have been many, many such landings—many more explorations than the ones we know about on this long journey of his which continues to this very day.

It would be too facile to interpret these “landings” as haphazard happenings when, in fact, they are symptoms or facets of a complex man’s search for a map, a clearly defined map to life and art, and art and life.

—Josine Ianco Starrels, Curator
Schneider Museum of Art

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