Presence: Claudette Johnson @ Courtauld Gallery, London

The portraits and self-portraits are large, but disconcertingly, the subjects make direct eye contact with the viewer. We, the viewer, are viewed as much as the portraits and self-portraits. They remind me of modern day Holbeins mixed with Impressionism, Toulouse-Lautrec kept springing to mind. Most of all they are beautiful, and full of dignity.

Much of the focus can be on the texture of hands, but also the delicacy of looking.

Or an image worked from a South African photographer.

Then there is the energy as the thoughtful subject looks about to move, to spring to life, to speak.

The textures of the checked shirt were riveting here. The more I looked, the more I saw.

Beautiful and tender was the reclining figure, in her rest, her ease and tiredness too.

Blues Dance was my favourite. Not only the texture of the materials and the light and shadows, but the flow as the dancer in the picture concentrates on the beat and her movement. It’s vibrant and enjoyable, but also feels a bit like Degas capturing ballerinas in the rehearsal studio. There’s the same sense of being in the moment, in someone else’s moment.

Like a triptych, Trilogy (Part 3) Woman in Red, alongside women in black and blue, fascinated me. It was the lightness of touch in creating the texture of the shirt, again more Toulouse-Lautrec comparisons. But also the Holbein-like stance, the colour contrasts, the elevation and prominence.

Part of the exhibition and artistry seeks to dignify and celebrate black women, to honour their bodies and personhood; to re-adjust the viewer’s gaze to see people. Like the other works, Trilogy most certainly did this, presenting ordinary women in their dignified fullness.

@ Images are from the Claudette Johnson: Presence exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery, London. They are the property of the artist Claudette Johnson and used purely to illustrate an excellent exhibition. December 2023.