This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Jitterbugs II
Artist:William Henry Johnson (American, Florence, South Carolina 1901–1970 Central Islip, New York)
Date:ca. 1941
Medium:Screenprint
Dimensions:17 in. × 13 3/4 in. (43.2 × 35 cm)
Classification:Prints
Credit Line:Gift of Reba and Dave Williams, 1999
Object Number:1999.529.79
Inscription: Signed and inscribed (verso, center, in pen and blue ink): F0-304(13) / Jitterbugs II / William H. Johnson
[Evans-Tibbs Gallery, Washington, D.C., until 1992; sold on February 18, 1992 to Williams]; Reba and Dave Williams, New York (1992–99; their gift to MMA)
Newark Museum, held jointly at the Equitable Gallery, New York. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," December 10, 1992–February 28, 1993, no. 37.
Long Beach Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," June 4–August 8, 1993, no. 37.
Cambridge, England. Fitzwilliam Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," October 5–December 19, 1993, no. 37.
Albany. New York State Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," January 5–March 13, 1994, no. 37.
New Haven. Yale University Art Gallery. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," April 7–June 12, 1994, no. 37.
Louisville. Speed Art Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," July 12–September 4, 1994, no. 37.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," October 9–December 4, 1994, no. 37.
Baltimore Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," January 4–February 26, 1995, no. 37.
Charleston. Gibbes Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," March 26–May 21, 1995, no. 37.
Miami Beach. Bass Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," June 18–August 13, 1995, no. 37.
Little Rock. Arkansas Arts Center. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," September 10–November 5, 1995, no. 37.
Mobile, Ala. Fine Arts Museum of the South. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," December 3, 1995–January 28, 1996, no. 37.
Brooklyn Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," February 25–April 22, 1996, no. 37.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," May 17–July 14, 1996, no. 37.
Dallas Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," August 9–October 6, 1996, no. 37.
Saint Louis Art Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," November 1, 1996–January 2, 1997, no. 37.
Atlanta. High Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," January 31–March 30, 1997, no. 37.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "African-American Artists, 1929–1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 15–May 4, 2003, extended to July 6, 2003, not in catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism," February 25–July 28, 2024, unnumbered cat. (pl. 97).
Reba and Dave Williams inAlone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–40s by African-American Artists; From the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams. Exh. cat., Newark Museum. New York, 1993, pp. 29, 50, no. 37, date it about 1942.
Lowery Stokes Sims inAlone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–40s by African-American Artists; From the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams. Exh. cat., Newark Museum. New York, 1993, pp. 4–5, fig. 2 (color).
Leslie King-Hammond inAlone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–40s by African-American Artists; From the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams. Exh. cat., Newark Museum. New York, 1993, p. 17.
Mark M. Johnson. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints by African-American Artists of the 1930s–40s." Arts & Activities 114 (December 1993), p. 6, fig. 2 (color).
Vivien Raynor. "At Yale, Deliberate Images in Black and White." New York Times (May 29, 1994), p. CN14.
Michael Rosenfeld. William H. Johnson: Works from the Collection of Mary Beattie Brady, Director of the Harmon Foundation. Exh. cat., Michael Rosenfeld Gallery. New York, 1995, p. 31, ill. p. 29 (color) (not this edition).
Steve Turner and Victoria Dailey. William H. Johnson: Truth Be Told. Exh. cat., Louisiana Art and Science Center, Baton Rouge. Los Angeles, 1998, pp. 37–38, 104, 200, no. 49, ill. p. 201 (color) (not this edition).
Michael Rosenfeld. African-American Art, 20th Century Masterworks, VI. Exh. cat., Michael Rosenfeld Gallery. New York, 1999, p. 58, ill. p. 39 (color) (not this edition).
Martin Fox. "Selections from The Art Institute of Chicago: African Americans in Art." Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 24, no. 2 (1999), p. 199, no. 10, ill. (color) (not this edition).
Angela Campbell. "William Henry Johnson's 'Jitterbugs II'." Art in Print 5 (January–February 2016), pp. 30–31, ill. (color, overall and detail).
Salamishah Tillet. "Tweaking Time to Grasp a Trauma." New York Times (November 20, 2021), ill. p. C1 (color, installation view).
"Light Years: The Met’s Afrofuturist Period Room Thinks Inside the Box." artforum.com. December 2, 2021, ill. (color, installation view).
Ian Alteveer, Hannah Beachler, and Sarah Lawrence in "Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 79 (Winter 2022), p. 12, fig. 7 (color, installation photo).
Glenn Adamson. "Visions of a Lost Future." Crafts no. 292 (January/February 2022), ill. p. 86 (color, installation view).
Re'al Christian. "Refusing the Here–Now: An Afrofuturist Period Room and Black Fugitivity in the Undercommons." Art Papers Magazine 45 (Summer 2022), fig. B (color, installation view).
Denise Murrell inThe Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism. Ed. Denise Murrell. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2024, pp. 301, 304 n. 20, colorpl. 97, discusses the "Jitterbugs" series.
Darryl Pinckney. "'Who Shall Describe Beauty?'." New York Review of Books 71 (May 9, 2024), p. 20.
Gene Seymour. "'The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism'." Artforum 63 (September 2024), p. 157, generally discusses the "Jitterbugs" series.
Susan Tallman. "The Harlem Renaissance was Bigger Than Harlem." Atlantic 334 (July–August 2024), p. 114, generally discusses "Jitterbugs" series.
William Henry Johnson (American, Florence, South Carolina 1901–1970 Central Islip, New York)
ca. 1942
Resources for Research
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Met's engagement with art from 1890 to today includes the acquisition and exhibition of works in a range of media, spanning movements in modernism to contemporary practices from across the globe.
