It has been a while since I last posted here. This time I have a double-feature, presenting works of two phenomenal contemporary Black British artists – Claudette Johnson and Barbara Walker. Both artists are known for their paintings and drawings featuring human figures.

Claudette Johnson: Presence

I saw the Claudette Johnson’s retrospective at the Courtauld in London a couple of months ago and the sense of wonder and awe I felt looking at her works has stayed with me since. Johnson’s works seem like portraits at first, however the artist describes them as anti-portraiture. The portraits we are used to seeing in art galleries and museums usually follow a certain format – a figure, usually sitting in a chair, with some objects in the background or foreground that somehow relate to the sitter. Johnson is pushing against portraiture in a conventional sense.

… I am having a dialogue with the surface I am working on, the frame that I am working within, and … I am thinking about how a figure enters into the space that I am presenting it in. I am trying to give the sense that the figure exists beyond that boundary and so in that way it’s a kind of anti-portraiture.

Claudette Johnson

A common feature in Johnson’s works is the intentional cropping of the figures. The sitters often appear too large for the piece of paper or canvas which gives these works a unique and contemporary look. It is as if the individual portrayed could not be contained within the frame.

What I love the most about these works is the sense of being unfinished, highly detailed faces are often juxtaposed with suggested, sketched-in forms. A sense of movement is brilliantly suggested in the gestures and folds of fabric. Many of Johnson’s paintings are inspired by dance, for example Blues Dance (2023). The title is a reference to Blues music, but also to the colour of the dress in the image.

The artist’s favourite medium is dry pastel, which she describes as almost fluid, and the closest you can get to working with pure pigment. The medium also allows for relatively quick work as pastels allow to cover large areas easily. By combining pastel, watercolour and gouache, Johnson arrives at exciting and vibrant effects in her works.

Barbara Walker: Body of Proof

Barbara Walker was one of the finalists of Turner Prize 2023, currently shown at the Towner in Eastbourne. She was nominated for her exhibition Body of Proof previously displayed at the Sharjah Biennale 15. This emotionally-charged exhibit is the artist’s response to the Windrush Scandal which became public in 2018. During that time many people of Caribbean descent living in the UK, majority of whom belonged to the ‘Windrush Generation’, were effectively declared illegal immigrants and threatened with deportation.

Walker’s work explores topics of race, class, power, body politics and the experience of African-Caribbean community in the UK. She often includes historical references in her paintings, but also paints scenes from contemporary everyday life, reflecting on identity and belonging.

Body of Proof is a word-play. It refers to the documents that those affected had to gather and present to the Home Office in order to prove their legal status. Walker drew portraits of five survivors of the Windrush scandal on large painstakingly hand-drawn copies of their documents. The way that portraits blend in with the text is symbolic of the situation in which those affected by the scandal found themselves in – the document became more important than the person. This is to emphasise that people are not just a number on a piece of paper.

The main feature of the exhibition is the large wall installation hand-painted by the artist. It consists of five portraits. At the end of the exhibition the artworks will be washed away, a planned act of erasure which mirrors how easily people can become ‘erased’ by the system.

… I’ve always been erasing my work, consciously or subconsciously I’ve always been erasing, it’s one of the key signatures of my practice, I guess. How do you represent and show erasure, or exclusion within the art piece?

Barbara Walker

See more:

Claudette Johnson – In the studio on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGBznHdTW2M

The Courtauld exhibition website: https://courtauld.ac.uk/whats-on/claudette-johnson/

Barbara Walker – It’s like life itself, like the air I breathe, on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keXpJae-XfU

Towner Gallery exhibition website: https://townereastbourne.org.uk/whats-on/turner-prize/barbara-walker