Claudette Johnson
2019
Pastel, gouache and acrylic paint on paper
150.2 x 105.5 cm
Claudette Johnson here creates a dramatic composition, depicting herself together with an African sculpture. The slightest physical contact is made at their bellies, whilst the rest is held in taut separation. Johnson’s colour palette contributes to a sense of tension: the cool blue blocks in the background complement her lavender top, contrasting with the flaming red striations of the sculptural figure. African sculpture has played an important role in the development of European modernist art, with white artists often appropriating it for their own ends. In this powerful but uneasy work, Johnson confronts her own complex relationship to both African art and European modernism as a Black woman artist today.