Ralph Johnson

Ralph Johnson was a highly inventive, maverick character. One of the earliest members of the Department of Art at UC Davis, he always maintained an independent and unique position as an artist and showed a dedication and serious commitment to teaching.

Ralph joined the new art department at UC Davis in 1957 and retired in 1988. He served as department chair from 1981 to 1983. Until the late 1960s, Johnson was known primarily for his paintings, which ranged from geometric abstractions based on natural forms to more recognizable subjects enveloped within almost hallucinatory qualities of mood and color.

In the late 1950s, due to the needs of the new art department, Ralph taught sculpture. Teaching the sculpture courses proved pivotal in Johnson's life. It allowed him, even while he continued to paint, to explore this new medium, which he did in an imaginative and highly crafted way.

Johnson had moved almost entirely to sculpture by the 1970s. Working primarily in wood, he created a significant body of work for which he received widespread attention and recognition. His sculpture, usually based on furniture forms and meticulously crafted, became increasingly invested with his wit, humor, love of irony, and piercing intellect.

After retirement from teaching, Johnson's dialogue with sculptural expression seemed to become even deeper and more personal, yet his work remained profoundly affecting and accessible in its content, meaning, and structure.