In the mid-1970s, artist and Georgia State University professor Medford Johnston, along with his wife and collaborator Loraine, began collecting artworks by pioneering artists of the contemporary art movement from the late 1960s and 1970s. Initially acquiring a diverse range of paintings and objects, they soon refined their focus to drawings, particularly those by artists engaging with abstraction during a dynamic period of innovation and experimentation in the mid-1960s.
Today, the Johnstons have assembled one of the premier collections of postwar American drawings and related objects, now exceeding eighty-five works, which they have bequeathed to The High Museum in Atlanta. The exhibition, titled Thinking Eye, Seeing Mind: The Medford and Loraine Johnston Collection, features renowned artists such as Sol LeWitt, Brice Marden, Elizabeth Murray, Martin Puryear, and Stanley Whitney, among others. It charts the evolution of American abstraction from 1960 to 1990, offering insights into the various directions and motivations underlying the stylistic explorations of artists during this era. The exhibition exemplifies the dedication, focus, discipline, and discerning vision required to establish a significant art collection.
