Her "Color Room" at Bennington College, a walk-through sculptural environment, was visited by David Smith, and she worked as an assistant to Frederick Kiesler and Joseph Cornell.

Johanson developed friendships with Helen Frankenthaler and Barnett Newman before graduating from Bennington in 1962.

"William Clark", which placed color and form in physical space, was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Kunsthalle, Zurich, Grand Palais, Paris, and Tate Gallery, London.

Patricia Johanson was born in New York City, grew up in Olmsted parks, and spent summers in the Catskill Mountains.

She began writing about designing the world as a work of art, and creating paintings where color and form was reduced to its simplest essence.

Johanson's first exhibit, "8 Young Artists" is considered the first exhibition of "Minimal Art".

Around this time she met Georgia O'Keeffe and traveled with her to Abiquiu to organise her paintings and photographs. Johanson encouraged O'Keeffe to produce her only large painting, "Above the Clouds".