The New York Times Art critic Hilton Kramer wrote about Ben Johnson’s delightful “Hat” Series to which these paintings belong: “There is a wild and funny foolishness going on in these “Hat” paintings which should not, however, obscure their great interest and power in purely pictorial terms ... It is precisely the imposition of coherent and powerful feeling which distinguishes Johnson’s use of some of these crude materials and raw tastes. Color which is at times of cosmetic garishness; drawing which verges on illustration and cartoon; composition which owes more than a little to modern layout design; and the curious hard luminosity which resembles the effects of photographers spotlights and stage lighting – these and other elements of popular culture enter into the making of Johnson’s paintings, which nonetheless evoke, and perhaps even solicite, memories of Courbet’s Sleepers, Manet’s Olympia, Renoir’s Bathers and Matisse’s Luxe, Calm et Volupte.” (Arts Magazine, January 1963, pp. 34-39.)

 

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