- Created by
- Johnson, Sargent Claude, American, 1888 - 1967
- Date
- 1938-1940
- Medium
- varnished terracotta
- Dimensions
- 10 x 6 x 7 in. (25.4 x 15.2 x 17.8 cm)
- Caption
- Sargent Claude Johnson’s multifaceted work reflected the aesthetic sensibilities of the New Negro movement and the Mexican mural movement, as well as early American abstraction. Although Johnson is most often celebrated for his works reflecting African and African American figurative subject matter, by the late 1930s he became a participant in America’s burgeoning abstract expressionist style.
- The sleek form and gently undulating movement of Dancer is sculpted in the biomorphic or organic style popular in Europe and the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. It is characterized by rounded abstract forms that are based on shapes found in the natural world.
- Description
- An abstract varnished terracotta sculpture, made of deep red-brown terracotta clay with occasional black and brown flecks from inclusions within the clay. Rising from a curvilinear dark wood base, the sculpture incorporates a rounded, twisting form that curves in an 'S' shape. The 'S' shape intersects with a rounded trianguloid shape that together flow into a rounded form with a swooping wing.
- Place made
- San Francisco, California, United States, North and Central America
- Classification
- Visual Arts
- Movement
- Harlem Renaissance (New Negro Movement)
- Type
- sculpture
- Credit Line
- Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Object number
- 2013.164
- Restrictions & Rights
- Unknown – Restrictions Possible
- Rights assessment and proper usage is the responsibility of the user.




