
Blues Dance, 2023
Claudette Johnson
Pastel and gouache on paper
This work, made especially for the exhibition, reflects the significance of music within Claudette Johnson's practice. The figure of a woman swaying to a beat is inspired by a photograph that Johnson came across. Blues Dance is imbued with her own memories of being part of the Blue Beat reggae dance scene in the 1980s, when dances were often held in people's homes, as well as referring to the great tradition of Blues music. The title also picks up the colour of the woman's dress, painted with the aim, as Johnson has remarked, 'to make the blues move in the work.' The drawing conveys the feeling of a woman being at one with herself, fully absorbed in the music and moving to her own beat.*
From the exhibition
Claudette Johnson: Presence
(September 2023 – January 2024)
A major exhibition of work by British artist Claudette Johnson (born 1959) is now open at The Courtauld Gallery.
A founding member of the Black British Arts Movement, Claudette Johnson is considered one of the most significant figurative artists of her generation. For over 30 years she has created large-scale drawings of Black women and men that are at once intimate and powerful.
Presenting a carefully selected group of major works from across her career, from key early drawings such as the arresting I Came to Dance, 1982, and And I Have My Own Business in This Skin, 1982, alongside recent and new works, this exhibition offers a compelling overview of Johnson’s pioneering career and artistic development.
It will consider how Johnson has directed her approach to representing her subjects over three decades, and how her practice is rooted in the art of the past with The Courtauld’s collection providing a rich context in which to see her work.
Working in a variety of media, ranging from monochrome works in dark pastel to vast sheets brightly coloured in vibrant gouache and watercolour, combined with dramatic use of pose, gaze, and scale, Johnson’s distinctive drawings of friends, relatives, and often herself seek, as the artist puts it, “to tell a different story about our presence in this country”.
This exhibition is the first monographic show of Claudette Johnson’s work at a major public gallery in London and is rooted in the ongoing research, teaching and activities in the field of Black and Diasporic British Art by Dorothy Price, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art and Critical Race Art History at The Courtauld..
[*The Courtauld]
Taken in the Courtauld