FOCUS: Drawing The Human Figure

Devised by Francesca Herrick and Nadine Mahoney

Download the PDF: Drawing the Human Figure

Introduction 

The larger-than-life drawings of Claudette Johnson (b. 1959) offer a fantastic opportunity to explore the power of line, colour and scale for capturing the human figure. London-based Johnson is best known for her pictures of Black women, which typically show the sitter pushing up against or beyond the boundaries of the paper. The women appear confident and comfortable with their identities, although some of their poses might have been difficult to hold. Whether looking at the works in person, or with our virtual tour, you can see that the people in her artworks have a strong presence in the gallery space. They feel close and real.

Artworks such as Figure in Blue show an intimate moment, despite the large size of the paper. Johnson spends a lot of time with the sitters and ‘invites them to take up space in a way that is reflective of who they are.’ This makes the artworks a collaboration. There is often a strong sense of individuality, but the artwork titles never record a name, or indeed any reference to time and place. Johnson’s drawings of the human figure invite people to connect their own emotions and experiences, especially people who have been excluded from art historical discourse. At the same time, Johnson’s work is rooted in art history, continuing to develop the way other artists have broken new ground when depicting the human figure.

Talking Points 1

• What makes a picture of a person a portrait? Come up with some ideas and then check if Johnson’s drawings fit your definition/s.
• Looking at Figure in Blue, what human qualities do you think Johnson wanted to show? Write down three words.
• What is a drawing? Please think about materials, line, colour and the space of the paper. Come back to this question once you have tried the activities below.

‘The fiction of “blackness” constructed by and through colonialism and its aftermath can be interrupted by an encounter with the stories that we have to tell about ourselves.’
Claudette Johnson

Johnson’s drawings contest and provide compelling alternatives to historical European depictions of Black women in art. She describes their presence in art as one that has been ‘distorted, hidden and denied,’ referring to examples where a Black model was used to provide an aesthetic contrast to the white subject of the painting (for example, Édouard Manet’s Olympia, 1863). She also highlights the long tradition of exoticising and eroticising women of colour, evident in the work of Paul Gauguin (1848-1903). Such approaches deny the context and humanity of the original sitters. In reality, the women represented would have already felt little control over their bodies as a result of colonialism and racism.

In a now legendary talk given at The First National Black Art Convention in Wolverhampton (1982), Johnson, aged just 23, discussed the marginalisation of Black women in European art and offered her own practice as a challenge to historical depictions produced for the colonial male gaze. She was heckled as men in the audience failed to appreciate significant differences between the historical examples presented and her drawings. The conference organisers side-lined Johnson to a separate room to continue the discussion. A positive outcome was meeting artists Sonia Boyce (b. 1962), Lubaina Himid (b. 1954) and Ingrid Pollard (b. 1953), women who would become similarly influential in the Black British Arts Movement.

Telling a different story of Black presence

In order to give her sitters powerful physical and psychological presence, Johnson borrows visual strategies from across art history, with references as diverse as Raphael (1483-1520), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938), Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Egon Schiele (1890-1918) and Jenny Saville (b. 1970). As a student at Wolverhampton Polytechnic between 1979-82, Johnson’s passion for art history was often frustrated by a lack of access to positive imagery of Black women. She developed an approach of taking subject matter from found images and photographs of herself, of models and from her imagination. The emotional presence of the artworks comes from giving the Black sitters visibility and control that has historically been denied.

‘I feel that the active involvement of the women in my drawings, who are so obviously engaged in creating themselves, acts to challenge the entrenched passivity and negative sexuality of the “nude” tradition in painting.’
Claudette Johnson

The beautiful materiality of Johnson’s drawings can perhaps distract us from the truly political nature of her art and her ongoing commitment to breaking boundaries, both visually and intellectually. Her practice addresses uncomfortable histories and confronts significant absences, while also offering the space for productive conversations. She graduated at a crucial time of Black political activism and her works from across the decades remain just as relevant in our own era of protest. She continues to draw Black women subjects who refuse to be contained or objectified. In recent years, she has also turned her attention to young Black men and their subject-hood in art, sometimes using her sons as models.

‘[A]reas of detail are concentrated around solid areas of emptiness making the absences as significant as what is present. It is a way of looking at the damage that has been done to us. Some of the ghosts of displacement and unbelonging are exorcised in the process.’
Claudette Johnson

The magic of drawing

‘I want to find out something about drawing – and about the history of drawing – how light and dark sit together.’
Claudette Johnson

Johnson’s artworks push us to think about the exciting possibilities of drawing for our own work. She is part of a long line of artists who have been brave enough to approach a blank page with an open mind and see where lines will lead. She readily admits to often ‘making a mess’ and that most of her experimenting comes from a place of ‘not knowing’. Johnson recognises a similar freedom in drawings by Rembrandt (1606-1669), a Dutch artist who lived 400 years ago. He is famous for his thoughtful portraits, often made using few colours with strong contrasts of light and dark. His Man Seated in The Courtauld Collection has similarities with Johnson’s work – the figure may be calm and composed, but the layered and tangled lines bring incredible energy.

Activity 6: Incorporate music

• Johnson has compared the broken lines of her drawings with jazz, where ‘the line gets broken and rearranged, and the rhythms syncopate, not following a pattern that is easily recognised, yet there is a pattern’.
• Listen to Johnson’s playlist
• Now listen to your favourite music as you do an activity.