The Courtauld Gallery (Samuel Courtauld Trust) has acquired Blues Dance, 2023, by British artist Claudette Johnson (born 1959), one of the leading figures of the Black British Arts Movement.
Blues Dance was created especially for The Courtauld’s current major exhibition, Claudette Johnson: Presence, on display in its Denise Coates Exhibition Galleries until 14th January 2024, presenting a selection of Johnson’s larger-than-life drawings of Black women and men from across her career.
Claudette Johnson, said:
I am honoured that Blues Dance will be entering The Courtauld collection after being shown for the first time at the Courtauld Gallery. I’m excited about visitors going from seeing a Gauguin, a Manet or a Vanessa Bell to my work. It’s good to know that there will be another story being told about women, Black women and Black people that will encourage questions about the stories that prevail within the canon of Western art history.
Blues Dance is a remarkable example of Johnson’s epically scaled works on paper. A powerful but nuanced depiction of a Black woman dancing, it reflects the significance of music within the artist’s practice. The figure of a woman swaying to a beat is inspired by a photograph that resonated with Johnson. Blues Dance is imbued with her own memories of being part of the Blue Beat reggae dance scene in the 1980s, when dances were often held in people’s homes, as well as referring to the great tradition of Blues music. The title also picks up the colour of the woman’s dress, painted with the aim, as Johnson has remarked, ‘to make the blues move in the work.’ The drawing conveys the feeling of a woman being at one with herself, fully absorbed in the music and moving to her own beat.
Ernst Vegelin, Head of The Courtauld Gallery said:
Blues Dance will be a major contemporary addition to The Courtauld’s holdings. It resonates strongly with earlier drawings and paintings in the collection as well as being a significant part of our efforts to build the representation of contemporary art at The Courtauld.
One of the most significant figurative artists of her generation, Johnson creates drawings of Black women and men that are at once intimate and powerful. For over 30 years she has consistently pushed herself to create the most authentic renderings of her sitters, addressing both Black bodies and interior lives and lending them a profound sense of presence.
Working in a variety of media, from monochrome works in dark pastel to vast sheets brightly coloured in vibrant gouache and watercolour, combined with a dramatic use of pose, gaze, and scale, her distinctive drawings of friends, relatives, and often herself seek, as the artist puts it, “to tell a different story about our presence in this country”.
Johnson came to prominence in the 1980s as an art student in Wolverhampton, starting her career as part of the newly formed BLK Art Group, and became a pioneer of Black British feminism in the visual arts. The exhibition at The Courtauld is the first monographic show of Johnson’s work at a major public gallery in London.
Claudette Johnson: Presence, 14th Jan 2024, The Courtauld Gallery ?
Blues Dance is available exclusively to purchase as a custom print and canvas from The Courtauld Shop for the duration of the exhibition. shop.courtauld.ac.uk/collections/claudette-johnson-presence/
A limited edition print, Oil Sketch, 2019, has also been developed in partnership with Claudette Johnson, to celebrate her landmark exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery. shop.courtauld.ac.uk/limited-edition-claudette-johnson-self-study
