Claudette Johnson on Picasso

Why It Matters

By recontextualizing Picasso’s appropriation, Johnson spotlights cultural ownership and empowers marginalized narratives, reshaping how the art world values and critiques historic masterpieces.

Key Takeaways

• Johnson links Picasso's women to African mask influences
• She reinterprets "Demoiselles d'Avignon" through ancestral female power
• Emphasizes reclaiming Picasso’s appropriation of African art in modernism
• Her figures negotiate relationships with ancestral presences in canvas
• Highlights personal exploration of identity within modernist canon

Summary

Claudette Johnson uses a recent video to unpack her dialogue with Pablo Picasso’s seminal 1907 painting, "Demoiselles d'Avignon." She foregrounds the African mask motifs that inspired Picasso’s fragmented women, positioning them as symbols of unapologetic female power rather than exotic curiosities.

Johnson argues that her own work is a deliberate re‑appropriation of Picasso’s appropriation. By inserting “ancestral” figures beside her modern women, she reframes the narrative: the women become custodians of lineage, negotiating a relationship with the spirits that Picasso merely borrowed.

She emphasizes, “those women are just not to be messed with,” and later notes she will “call her the ancestors,” underscoring a conscious shift from passive muse to active, intergenerational presence. The piece blends music, visual motifs, and spoken reflection to illustrate this negotiation.

The conversation signals a broader reassessment of modernist canon, urging artists and institutions to acknowledge the cultural debts embedded in iconic works. Johnson’s reinterpretation offers a template for reclaiming agency while honoring the complex histories that inform contemporary art practice.

Original Description

'It's a reappropriation of his appropriation'

Artist Claudette Johnson tells us about her painting Standing Figure with African Masks (2018), in some ways a response to Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907).

🎥 Watch our full interview with Johnson from 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuGXGyKL5wk

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