Johnny Banks

1912-1988

John Willard Banks, born in 1912 in Seguin, Texas, was an African American artist whose drawings were a personal interpretation of religious themes, historic events, and the day-to-day life of black folks in Texas.  Banks lived the hand-to-mouth existence of many Black people in Texas earlier in this century: he found work where he could, when he could.  John Banks had drawn since he was a child, but his mature style developed late in life, around the time he married his second wife. His production accelerated after a hospital stay in 1978. Banks had visions which formed the primary source for his drawings.  He used to say “My visions are like a veil crossing my eyes in the night. I have to draw them right away or they’ll be gone.”  Banks drew on paper and poster board with felt markers, watercolors, pencil, ballpoint pen, and crayon and his work was uniformly consistent. ²