
Claudette Johnson
Child Painting
2020
Lithograph
76 x 49,5 cm
Edition of 40 copies, signed and numbered by the artist
Out of stock
about this work
Claudette Johnson says about this edition: ‘The print features an ink study of my three-year-old granddaughter on the day that she “assisted” me in the studio. She was helping me to paint primer onto a large sheet of paper that we had taped to the studio floor. She was dressed in a pair of my studio overalls and she sang a paint song as she worked. Her pleasure and concentration as she worked illustrated for me, the special alchemy of painting. It makes time stop and gives us permission to play.’
This edition is part of School Prints, an ambitious five-year project launched by The Hepworth Wakefield, to engage every primary school child in Wakefield District with contemporary art. Each year, the participating schools are gifted a set of limited-edition prints by leading contemporary artists for display in school and are supported with an in-depth engagement programme led by local artists to encourage creativity across the curriculum.
about Claudette Johnson
Claudette Johnson is adept at capturing her sitters’ physical attitudes, by turns defiant and wary, funny and challenging, and often with tender intimacy. Her formal mastery in framing the figure is sharply observed and in conversation with the histories of figuration and the black body in European art. She explores how women in particular occupy space and how the figure can ‘reach out to the boundaries of the frame… sometimes existing beyond.’
Working at large scale, the artist has developed a technique of drawing that she has compared to dancing and jazz in its stretching, rhythm and moments of improvisation.
Recent exhibitions include Modern Art, Oxford; Hollybush Gardens, London; The Drawing Room, London; South London Gallery, London, and Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham. Her work is held in collections including Tate, Arts Council, British Council and the Rennie Collection Vancouver, BC.
Claudette Johnson is represented by the following galleries;
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