During a turbulent childhood, Buffie Johnson was shuffled between parents, sent to a convent, and finally ended up with relatives in Massachusetts. At age eight she began painting her "Spirits Of" series. The spirits included the sun, moon, winds, earth, sky, and stars. The Cosmic Goddess and the cyclical nature of life would become a theme and influence on her work throughout her life.

She began regular studies, which included courses in art in the 1920's. Buffie's friends at this time included Tony Smith, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko, for whom Buffie arranged his first gallery. During the height of Abstract Expressionism her circle also involved Lee Krasner, Willem DeKooning, and Robert Motherwell. By the 1950's, Buffie felt she was surrounded by an anti-female energy from the other artists when "you paint like a man" was the biggest compliment one could receive. In the 30's, she traveled to Paris to study with Francis Picabia and Stanley William Hayter.

Always striving to represent divine female power even when met with resistance and discouragement, Buffie Johnson herself embodies that very power. An extraordinary woman, who has lived her entire life producing and celebrating art, Buffie has blazed a trail for artists and women alike. After nearly a century, the wisdom and body of work that Buffie offers is unparalleled in quality and spiritual intensity.

"American Transcendentalists are both singular and few, and it is among the few, and at a well defined spiritual distance from other artists of her generation, that Buffie Johnson lives." -Horace Gregory

Permanent Collections
National Collection of Fine Arts
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C
Boston Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA
Yale University Art Gallery, CT
Baltimore Museum, MD
Fine Arts Museum of Cincinnati, OH
Rhode Island School of Design, RI
University of Michigan Museum, MI
University of New Mexico Museum, NM
Munson-Willliams-Proctor Museum, NY
New York University Art Collection, NY
Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Cornell University, NY Newark Museum, NJ
Santa Barbara Museum, CA
Israel Museum
Walker Art Center
Whitney Museum of Art, New York City
University of Texas at Austin, TX
State University of New York at Purchase, NY
New Orleans Museum of Art, LA
The Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY
The Guggenheim Museum of Art, NY
Portland Art Museum, Portland OR