The Turner Prize is a very good barometer of the strengths and feelings of the art world as it stands in the current environment. The debates over the years have been as much to do with the medium of art as well as the content. As art has moved away from its traditional forms into the plethora of modern contemporary media the Turner Prize has been part of this journey meeting the challenge head on at times. So I personally found great pleasure this year in the recognition of  easel paintings and in particular the work of Claudette Johnson.

Modern Art Oxford is the gallery I first encountered Claudette Johnson’s work in her I Came To Dance exhibition in 2019 (see link). Her oversize paintings featuring black women with the strong colour contrast, especially her rich blue clothing, still stand out strongly in my memory. So my painting of the month celebrates her 2018 Standing Figure with African Masks, now in the Tate collection.

While Egon Schiele, Paul Klee and Toulouse-Latrec could all be regarded as influences, this painting is inspired by Picasso’s great work of 1906, Les Demoiselles, D’Avignon. In Johnson’s words, ‘I first saw Picasso’s (painting) as a second year Fine Art student. I was struck by the rawness of the image, the fractured space, his use of African imagery and the fearlessness of the women’. Her painting is a monumental piece that acknowledges the  strength of self-representation by black women, all this in the defiance of the colonial background to traditional painted portraiture. Her style like that of Schiele confounds the old concept of the admiring gaze.

While Johnson did not win the Turner Prize, which was announced on 4th December it was great to see one of my favourite painter artists recognised. Congratulations to Glasgow artist, Jasleen Kaur, for winning the contest with her installations from gathered and remade objects from everyday life to negotiating tradition and agreed myths.

_{Images © The Tate Gallery}