Vintage Abstract Stripe Gerald Johnson Hand Loomed Rug

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81”x69” Gerald Johnson [b.1944-2009] was an important figure in the Brooklyn art scene from the late 1960’s through the late … Read more 81”x69” Gerald Johnson [b.1944-2009] was an important figure in the Brooklyn art scene from the late 1960’s through the late 1980’s.

His works range from 1960’s expressionist and protest art to neoplasticism and midcentury constructivism.

All yarns were of the highest quality and each color was dyed by the artist by hand. His extensive personal notes show he used largely either Aljo Cold Process dyes or, in many cases, organic hand-harvested dyes such as yellows from the bark of wild crab apples, blue from the leaves of Isatis Tinctoria, purple from Galium Verum.

He produced rug after rug, leaving dozens in his studio never seen by anyone by himself and his wife. After his death, some of his rugs were offered for sale at a Museum show for $8,000 - $12,000. Those all sold. These present rugs were discovered buried in the remainder of his estate and are brand new, though produced in the 1970’s or 1980’s, and never before used or displayed.

“My first rugs used commercially dyed yarns. However, I quickly began dyeing my own colors. My weaving is derived from painting ideals. I think of weaving as painting slowed down. That quiet space is very much like the vast expanse and the perfect circle of the great plains, brought right into New York City, and through the rug, that quiet and space enters into a home.”

Rugs come with a mounting rod affixed to the rear and can be easily hung as a tapestry or used on the floor.

Johnson's works are included in the collections of: Prospect Hospital, Bronx; The Rockefeller Collection, New York; and the University of New York, Pottsdam, etc. See less