Veteran figurative painter Lester Frederick Johnson died on May 30th at the age of 91 of natural causes. He was a member of the second generation of the New York School and former chair of the art department at Yale University Graduate School of Art.

During a career that spanned over five decades, Johnson garnered an international reputation with over 100 one-man shows. His work belonging to the Smithsonian American Art Museum can be found here. A New York Times review of his 2004 show at James Goodman Gallery is here and a review of the same show in the Brooklyn Rail is here.

Johnson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1919 and attended the Minneapolis School of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. He moved to New York in 1947 where he shared studio space with artists Larry Rivers and Philip Pearlstein. He moved to Connecticut in 1964 with his wife Josephine Valenti. He taught at Yale University’s Graduate School of Art and was named chair of the art department in 1979. He retired from Yale in 1989.

Johnson’s work has been exhibited with the David Klein Gallery in Detroit and the James Goodman Gallery in New York City. He is survived by his wife of 61 years, his daughter Leslie Lowery, a son Anthony Johnson and four grandchildren. Johnson lived in Southampton, New York.