Lot 28 Nevill Johnson

Nevill Johnson RHA 1911-1999 THE WALL Oil on canvas, 16'' x 20'' (40.5 x 51cm), signed with initials. Probably painted at the very end of the 1940's, 'The Wall' appears to have been included in one of the solo or group exhibitions organised by Johnson's Dublin dealer, Victor Waddington, in the USA during this period and does not appear in the catalogues for his Dublin exhibitions. The emotional weight and resonance of Johnson's post-war paintings had by this period been distilled into a detached wit that informed his vision of the world. There is initially an effect of simplicity in the painting's construction, exactly-painted flat brick wall set against sky, yet as with much of Johnson's early work, it contains unsettling elements. This dour flatness is disrupted by the tantalising butterfly that has alighted on the wall; as we examine it, the world of weeds and mud on top of the wall becomes clearer and is clarified as an equally crucial part of the painting. It presents a withered landscape of its own that is reminiscent of the post-atomic wildernesses of Johnson's mid-1940's work; above it towers a grim industrial chimney that belongs to the soulless modern world of conformity that Johnson despised. 'The Wall' clarifies in many ways Johnson's belief in a beauty and individualism expressed by the butterfly that, however fragile, still exists in defiance of the dehumanised and rigid society that appears to be the dominant force in the world.