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Lot Essay
Soon to be honored with his first major solo museum retrospective, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York beginning in April 2025, Rashid Johnson’s Triptych “Box of Rain” serves as the artist’s magnum opus, bringing together three of his greatest series in a single work. Combining the themes of his celebrated Anxious Men, Bruise Paintings, and Surrender Paintings, Triptych “Box of Rain” confronts the collective psyche felt by many as they struggle with feelings of anxiety and isolation in contemporary society. This is the first painting by the artist to come to auction that combines all three of the central themes of his oeuvre.
Composed of three vertical paintings, the format of which is directly borrowed from Cy Twombly’s towering 2008 blue notes, the present work balances compositional order with gestural activity. From left to right, Johnson abbreviates his palette to patriotic shades of red, white, and blue. Each of the monumental canvases is composed of an orderly grid of rectangular shapes set in a five-by-six formation. This structure offers a visual anchor to Johnson’s brushwork which at times threatens to expand beyond the confines of each element. From each canvas, thirty rudimentary faces stare out at the viewer, amplifying the artist’s painterly energy. Definitive strokes envelop some of the faces, while others seem to push outward from their constraints. These raucous denizens cajole and squirm within the frame like a captive audience watching our every move.
The present work combines three of the artist’s most celebrated series. Although he first debuted his Anxious Man motif in 2015, it was in 2020—in response to the COVID-19 pandemic—that Johnson converted his previously monochromatic heads into ones rendered in blood red to heighten the fear and emotion of the global pandemic. The following year he unveiled his Bruise Paintings, a blue version of his now iconic motif. For the artist, these canvases represent the collective struggle and triumph over adversity. Rendered in thick streams of rich, blue oil paint they conjure up a reckoning, and mimic the body, and thus society’s, ability to heal itself. Finally, Johnson’s Surrender Paintings—executed in white—offer up the opportunity of redemption and the collective ability to surrender ourselves to forces beyond our control, which can be both uplifting and liberating. By offering up all three motifs, Triptych “Box of Rain” completes his trio of human emotions.
With works such as this, Johnson follows in a noble tradition of socially conscious artists who confront the challenges modern society often faces head-on. Although Jasper Johns famously declined the notion that his Flags were political, at the same time they did illustrate how inextricable the American flag is from formative ideas about the country. Glenn Ligon’s America takes a similar tact in letting the name of the country and all its associations fill out his seemingly simple work in neon. In Triptych “Box of Rain”, Johnson chooses to render his anxious subjects in red, white, and blue. The associative use of these colors brings about connections to American politics and culture while driving home how ingrained ideas about government, belonging, and national identity can be in our collective subconscious.
Ahead of his retrospective at the Guggenheim in 2025, Triptych “Box of Rain” offers the first opportunity to experience the full power and relevance of Rashid Johnson’s paintings in one comprehensive work. These three large canvases can be hung in any order, or indeed separately, allowing the owner themselves to play a role in its interpretation. By utilizing and simplifying the human face down to its essential elements, the artist creates an intense personification of subconscious anguish that lay just below the surface for many people during the past few years. However, by employing this stylization, he was also able to make a mutable sign that continues to effectively mirror the state of the world in the present day. “I think that, in a way, they’re doing what I intended them to do,” he said in a 2020 interview, “which was to be nimble and to be present and flexible and organizing themselves to address or to take into consideration whatever was in front of them. In that respect, I think that they’re really continuing to successfully arrange themselves around the current topics.” (R. Johnson, quoted in M. Rappolt, “Rashid Johnson on Anxiety, Agency and Digital Exhibitions,” Art Review, December 4, 2020).
Composed of three vertical paintings, the format of which is directly borrowed from Cy Twombly’s towering 2008 blue notes, the present work balances compositional order with gestural activity. From left to right, Johnson abbreviates his palette to patriotic shades of red, white, and blue. Each of the monumental canvases is composed of an orderly grid of rectangular shapes set in a five-by-six formation. This structure offers a visual anchor to Johnson’s brushwork which at times threatens to expand beyond the confines of each element. From each canvas, thirty rudimentary faces stare out at the viewer, amplifying the artist’s painterly energy. Definitive strokes envelop some of the faces, while others seem to push outward from their constraints. These raucous denizens cajole and squirm within the frame like a captive audience watching our every move.
The present work combines three of the artist’s most celebrated series. Although he first debuted his Anxious Man motif in 2015, it was in 2020—in response to the COVID-19 pandemic—that Johnson converted his previously monochromatic heads into ones rendered in blood red to heighten the fear and emotion of the global pandemic. The following year he unveiled his Bruise Paintings, a blue version of his now iconic motif. For the artist, these canvases represent the collective struggle and triumph over adversity. Rendered in thick streams of rich, blue oil paint they conjure up a reckoning, and mimic the body, and thus society’s, ability to heal itself. Finally, Johnson’s Surrender Paintings—executed in white—offer up the opportunity of redemption and the collective ability to surrender ourselves to forces beyond our control, which can be both uplifting and liberating. By offering up all three motifs, Triptych “Box of Rain” completes his trio of human emotions.
With works such as this, Johnson follows in a noble tradition of socially conscious artists who confront the challenges modern society often faces head-on. Although Jasper Johns famously declined the notion that his Flags were political, at the same time they did illustrate how inextricable the American flag is from formative ideas about the country. Glenn Ligon’s America takes a similar tact in letting the name of the country and all its associations fill out his seemingly simple work in neon. In Triptych “Box of Rain”, Johnson chooses to render his anxious subjects in red, white, and blue. The associative use of these colors brings about connections to American politics and culture while driving home how ingrained ideas about government, belonging, and national identity can be in our collective subconscious.
Ahead of his retrospective at the Guggenheim in 2025, Triptych “Box of Rain” offers the first opportunity to experience the full power and relevance of Rashid Johnson’s paintings in one comprehensive work. These three large canvases can be hung in any order, or indeed separately, allowing the owner themselves to play a role in its interpretation. By utilizing and simplifying the human face down to its essential elements, the artist creates an intense personification of subconscious anguish that lay just below the surface for many people during the past few years. However, by employing this stylization, he was also able to make a mutable sign that continues to effectively mirror the state of the world in the present day. “I think that, in a way, they’re doing what I intended them to do,” he said in a 2020 interview, “which was to be nimble and to be present and flexible and organizing themselves to address or to take into consideration whatever was in front of them. In that respect, I think that they’re really continuing to successfully arrange themselves around the current topics.” (R. Johnson, quoted in M. Rappolt, “Rashid Johnson on Anxiety, Agency and Digital Exhibitions,” Art Review, December 4, 2020).