Claudette Johnson
1982
Pastel and gouache on paper
143 x 111 cm
Claudette Johnson created this work during her last year studying art at Wolverhampton Polytechnic. Drawn from the artist’s imagination, the figure of a naked Black woman reaches up and out of the edge of the paper. The richly coloured pastel and gouache are vigorously applied, giving the figure striking visual power. The work is partly a response to Pablo Picasso’s famous painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907; Museum of Modern Art, New York).
Johnson has spoken of wanting to reclaim the image of the Black female body, which, as in that work, is too often controlled, fetishised and sexualised. In contrast, Johnson’s figure, brought to life from a fractured array of colours and forms, asserts her independent presence. The work’s title is taken from a poem by the writer Gail Murray that concludes ‘and I have my own business in this skin and on this planet.’