Introduction
Claudette Johnson (born in 1959) is a British artist. She is known for her large-scale drawings of Black women and involvement with the BLK Art Group.
Biography
Claudette Johnson was born in Manchester, UK. She studied Fine Art at Wolverhampton Polytechnic. While still a student there, she joined the BLK Art Group and took part in their second show at the Africa Centre, London, in 1983. Her talk, and seminar, at the First National Black Arts Conference in 1982 is recognised as a formative moment in the Black feminist art movement in the UK. Her work has featured in important group exhibitions such as Five Black Women at London's Africa Centre Gallery in 1983, Black Woman Time Now at Battersea Arts Centre in the same year, and The Thin Black Line at the ICA in London in 1986. Reviewing her 1992 solo exhibition In This Skin: Drawings by Claudette Johnson, at the Black Art Gallery, London, artist Steve McQueen (at the time a student at Goldsmiths College) wrote: "What she does is to bring out the soul, sensuality, dignity, and spirituality of the black woman....Claudette Johnson's work is rooted in her African heritage. Her talent is as powerful as it is obvious."
Lubaina Himid describes Johnson's work as "deeply sensuous" and "richly coloured". The artist calls the Black women in her drawings "monoliths, larger than life versions of women". Eddie Chambers notes: "These portraits were imposing pieces that demanded the viewer’s attention, as well as their respect."
In 2011 Johnson co-founded the BLK Arts Research Group with Marlene Smith and Keith Piper, to re-examine the BLK Arts Group's body of work and historical legacy. In 2012, two major projects were staged by this research group: a symposium with a retrospective exhibition entitled The Blk Art Group was held at the Graves Gallery, Sheffield, and an international conference entitled "Reframing the Moment" was held at the University of Wolverhampton.
Johnson's work is in the collections of the Arts Council, Mappin Art Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery and Wolverhampton Art Gallery.
Selected exhibitions
- 1983: Five Black Women Artists. Africa Centre, London.
- 1983: Black Women Time Now. Battersea Arts Centre London.
- 1984: Into the Open: New Paintings Prints and Sculptures by Black Contemporary Artists. Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield.
- 1986: The Thin Black Line. Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.
- 1987: The Image Employed: The Use of Narrative in Black Art. Corner-House, Manchester.
- 1992: In This Skin: Drawings by Claudette Johnson. Black Art Gallery, London.
- 1997: Transforming the Crown: African, Asian and Caribbean Artists in Britain 1966–1986. Royal Festival Hall, London, and The Caribbean Cultural Centre, The Studio Museum in Harlem and The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York.
- 2012: Thin Black Line(s). Tate Britain, London.
- 2015–16: No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960–1990, Guildhall Art Gallery, London
- ^ Chambers, Eddie (2014). Black Artists in British Art: A History from 1950 to the Present. I.B.Tauris. pp. 254–. ISBN 978-1-78076-272-2.
- Ratnam, Niru (2002). "Black Woman Time Now". In Donnell, Alison. Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture. Routledge. pp. 49–. ISBN 978-1-134-70025-7.
- "Claudette Johnson". Diaspora Artists. Retrieved 19 July 2015.