Claudette Johnson

A founding member of the Black British Arts Movement, Claudette Johnson is considered one of the most significant figurative artists of her generation. For over 30 years she has created large-scale drawings of Black women and men that are at once intimate and powerful. Working in a variety of media, ranging from monochrome works in dark pastel to vast sheets brightly coloured in vibrant gouache and watercolour. Johnson's 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". Ed.: Elizaveta Shneyderman, Grace Storey. Text: Dorothy Price, Claudette Johnson and John Akomfrah.