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Claudette Johnson

Untitled

Description

Maker

Claudette Johnson (British, b. 1959)

Title

Untitled

Year

2015

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Dimensions

Sheet: 84.1 x 59.4 cm (33 1/8 x 23 3/8 inches)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Richard Brown Baker Fund for Contemporary British Art

Object Number

2019.16

Type

Projects & Publications

Publications

  • Journal

Manual / Issue 14: Shadows

The RISD Museum’s fourteenth issue of Manual shines a light on the shadow, centering the black body as a site of possibility, liberatory self-awareness, radical non-conformity, and joyful defiance. This issue serves as a companion to the exhibition Defying the Shadow.

Manual 14: Shadows opens with an excerpt on the shadow from W. E. B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk, followed by an introduction by Dr. Anita N. Bateman, who elucidates: “Operating in the shadow comes with a legacy of resistance, both in spiritual and ideological forms.”

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Perception and Presence in Contemporary Drawing
Mar 05, 2022 – Sep 11, 2022

Label copy

This drawing’s gentle balance between the defining contour lines and the soft smudging of pastel makes it seem as if the woman is floating off of the sheet. A founding member of the BLK Art Group, a cohort of politically active Black British artists, Johnson consistently centers Black subjects, especially women. In this drawing, she successfully balances the negative space of the sheet and a slightly larger-than-life scale to magnify the presence of her subject, who gives the appearance of considering us as we regard her. Johnson imbues this work with a regal and magnanimous presence.

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Tombstone

Claudette Johnson (British, b. 1959)
Untitled, 2015
Pastel on paper
Sheet: 84.1 x 59.4 cm (33 1/8 x 23 3/8 inches)
Richard Brown Baker Fund for Contemporary British Art 2019.16

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