Grace Mott Johnson
| Grace Mott Johnson | |
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Portrait of Grace Mott Johnson
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| Born |
July 28, 1882 New York, NY |
| Died | March 12, 1967 (aged 84) Rochester, NY |
| Nationality | American |
| Spouse(s) | Andrew Michael Dasburg (married 1909-1922) |
Grace Mott Johnson (1882–1967) was an American artist married to Andrew Michael Dasburg.
Johnson's mother died two years after she was born, so she was raised by her father. Her early years were spent being home-schooled on a farm in Yonkers, New York. She began drawing when she was four years old, and when the family moved to a farm in 1900 she enjoyed sketching horses and other farm animals. At the age of 22, she left home to study at the Art Students' League with sculptors Gutzon Borglum and James Earle Fraser, and also attended Birge Harrison's painting class in Woodstock. Throughout her career she would sculpt animals from memory, as she was adamant that animals could not be sketched. She would often attend circuses and farms for inspiration. In fact, for many summers she followed traveling circuses to observe the animals.
In 1909, Johnson and Andrew Dasburg went to Paris and joined the modernist circle of artists living there, including Morgan Russell, Jo Davidson, and Arthur Lee. During a trip to London that same year they were married. Johnson returned to the United States early the next year, but Dasburg stayed in Paris where he met Henri Matisse, Gertrude and Leo Stein, and became influenced by the paintings of Cézanne and Cubism. He returned to in August and he and Johnson became active members of the artist community. In 1911, their son Alfred was born. Both Dasburg and Johnson showed several works at the legendary Armory Show in 1913, and Dasburg also showed at the MacDowell Club in New York City, where he met the journalist and activist John Reed who later introduced him to Mabel Dodge (Luhan), a wealthy art patron and lifelong friend. In 1914, Dasburg met Alfred Stieglitz and became part of his avant-garde circle. Using what he had seen in Paris, Dasburg became one of the earliest American cubist artists, and also experimented with abstraction in his paintings.
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