Fred Johnson likes to tell stories, and one of his best is about a building he used to work in. Back in 1941, Johnson’s employer, O. Henry Tent and Awning, moved from the corner of Wilson and Clark to bigger headquarters a few blocks away. For Johnson, who painted circus-sideshow banners, this was good news: his canvases were huge, and now he’d have more space to work on them. The only problem was that his new studio had once been a hayloft.
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Johnson, now 97, speaks matter-of-factly, chuckling at times. He worked for O. Henry until just 15 years ago, and he’ll tell you it’s the best job he ever had–lots of commissions and steady work. Both were unusual in a profession that depended on circuses, which are notoriously seasonal.
Johnson is retired and living in Sun City, Arizona; but starting this week, a handful of his banners will be on display at the State of Illinois Art Gallery, in an exhibit curated by gallery director Debora Donato and Fred Johnson’s grandson, Randy Johnson.
“The secret of the banner art is the color and never mind if you exaggerate the subject matter,” Johnson once said about his work. “The idea is to attract attention.”
Johnson claims to have no favorites among his banners, but his grandson says that he did have favorite subjects. Clowns were one of them, and he continued to paint clowns for several years after he retired.
