ART OF THE MATTER ”Sometimes artists don’t really produce their best work when they’re responding immediately to events,” says Rashid Johnson.
Photo: ERIK VOGEL, COURTESY THE ARTIST AND HAUSER & WIRTHDuring the pandemic, conceptual artist and film director Rashid Johnson began a series called Untitled Anxious Red Drawings, in which characters are rendered in bright crimson oil stick on cotton rag. A show of eight of them opened on Hauser & Wirth’s website in April and has since sold out. Johnson recently donated another of the drawings to a Christie’s auction benefiting amfAR’s Fund to Fight Covid-19. That piece is part of a group, up for auction on July 10, called From the Studio that brings together 17 works by contemporary artists, including Richard Serra, Dana Schutz and George Condo, who also donated in support of the cause.
Rashid Johnson, Untitled Anxious Red Drawing, 2020
Photo: CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2020Johnson, 42, who lives in New York City and relocated to Long Island to isolate, was born in Chicago. He first gained acclaim for his series of photographs of Chicago’s homeless Black population that was exhibited in the group show Freestyle at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 2001. His practice now includes painting, sculpture and assemblage. He’s known for his shelf-like wall pieces that hold items from his life, including shea butter, lush plants and books, including copies of Richard Wright’s novel Native Son, which Johnson directed a movie version of in 2019. An earlier series called Anxious Men, in which characters are etched out of black soap and wax on white canvas, was a precursor of the Anxious Red Drawings.
Here, Johnson speaks to WSJ. about using red to represent anxiety, what he learned from doing an online show and art’s role in responding to current events.
A drawing with “anxious” in the title seems fitting to donate to an auction raising funds to fight Covid-19.
I can imagine that people would see it that way. I don’t disagree. Those works were made [during] those early moments in New York, when it was the epicenter for American coronavirus. I was feeling all of that anxiety and all that fear that most of us were feeling and continue to feel.
What led you to both the materials [oil stick and cotton rag] and the color for the series?
Some of it was just access. I had moved to our house on Long Island. I had paper and I had some oils. I took the materials that were in front of me. I felt an urgency to make something. I felt like that was going to be a cathartic opportunity. I haven’t historically used red in that way and I happened to have a few red oil sticks. I said, You know, it feels like the color that represents this time for me, this moment.
Do you find that it’s easier or harder to make art right now?
I don’t think it’s either for me. I just make art. There’s a quote... that inspiration is for amateurs. This is what I do; I make art. When things are complicated I make art; when things are easy, I make art. I do it under every circumstance. I respond to it differently as I do it under those different circumstances, but every circumstance is a reason for me to make art.
What do you think art’s role is in responding to current events?
Art can be an incredible tool to respond to events. Sometimes it can be a problematic tool. Sometimes artists don’t really produce their best work when they’re responding immediately to events, especially when we feel an urgency to describe those events.
For my work in particular, I had a body of work that was able to pivot and consume this moment while staying within the nature of what it wanted to say previously. If the work becomes didactic in its explanation of a time without opportunity to digest it, I think sometimes it’s problematic. I think art never has responsibility; I think art has opportunity. When [artists] do take on complicated topics and complicated times, it can be really really good. But I don’t think artists need to imagine that as their only responsibility. I do think that artists shouldn’t be averting their eyes, that we should be present and that we need to be capturing history in real time and after the fact.
Your show of the Untitled Anxious Red Drawings series at Hauser & Wirth sold out. What was the experience of having an online show like?
Very strange. The thing that’s really interesting about it is that there’s this new architecture in doing online shows. There’s a different amount of information that you can share. You can use imagery, you can use biography, you can use video as barriers between the works, which allow you a different perspective for how you navigate this web space. It’s fresh to me and new and not natural because I still far more prefer to see an artwork in person and to allow my body to traffic and navigate it.
Do you think any of those elements of online shows can be brought into in-person shows?
I think we’re going to see a lot of hybrid exhibitions, meaning that there will be exhibitions that are, of course, in the flesh but have components online. I think the idea of how something lives online will even continue on post–this moment, even just for the purpose of access.
You wrote an essay on anxiety for CNN in May. How are you dealing with your anxiety during the pandemic?
You know, it’s been complicated. I’ve had good days and bad days. The thing that I am doing is I’m being conscious of it and I’m admitting it and I’m exploring it and I’m staying present for it. I’m not letting it overwhelm me. I’m going to try to be conscious of my relationship to it.
What are you finding comfort in right now?
Family. It’s been great to be able to spend so much time with family. And just being there for that and seeing my son and watching him grow. And all the opportunity I’ve had to talk with friends. I’ve been really connected to people.
What do you miss the most from pre-pandemic life?
Sushi.
I watched your film Native Son [based on Richard Wright’s novel about a young Black man growing up in Chicago who accidentally commits a crime]. It seems maybe even more relevant now than when it came out last year. How have you felt watching the protests and responses to police violence?
I’m glad to see so many people so activated. I think we’ll see a lot of return for this. I’m not going to be pessimistic. It’s complicated to see. When someone looks at me and says, “Black Lives Matter,” I kind of want to say, “Yeah, I know.” I understand that... it’s important some people hear this—for some people it’s apparently new information. So I’m glad people are out there doing what it is they’re doing to make sure that our voices are amplified. I’ve been lucky to attend a few [of the marches] myself [in New York City], and it’s been a good experience.
Has the experience of the pandemic shifted your perspective on anything?
I haven’t totally unpacked all that. I feel like we’re still in the middle of it. I’m reserving opinion on some of that. [Otherwise] I’ll have to answer this, like, 20 times over, and in a year I’ll be like, Holy crap; I can’t believe I said that. I don’t know where we are. I know that I’m seeing what I believe to be a real failure in leadership.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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