All About Love with Mickalene Thomas
Mickalene Thomas, Din avec la main dans le miroir et jupe rouge, 2023, rhinestones, acrylic and glitter on canvas mounted on wood panel, 90 x 110 in (228.6 x 279.4 cm)
Blurring the lines between object and subject, concrete and abstract, real and imaginary, Mickalene Thomas creates complex portraits, landscapes, and interiors that explore how women's representation in art and popular culture shapes identity, gender, and self-perception. Thomas’s creativity extends beyond traditional artworks to include collages, sculpture, film, album covers, and furniture design. Her installations often evoke the vibrant aesthetics of her 1970s New Jersey childhood, transformed into psychedelic spaces that explore themes of identity and representation, while offering contemporary meditations on female sexuality, beauty, and power.
Adding to her already impressive collection of work, Thomas' latest book, Mickalene Thomas: All About Love – published on June 18, 2024 – delves into the multifaceted nature of love through the lens of her groundbreaking art. This volume showcases her exploration of themes such as identity, beauty, and empowerment, featuring her signature use of vibrant colors, rhinestones, and intricate compositions. All About Love depicts her artistic evolution through paintings, collages, photographs, and installations, delving into the influences of personal and cultural narratives on our perceptions of love.
Thomas's use of rhinestones adds an extra layer of meaning and symbolism to her work, highlighting and challenging traditional notions of femininity. Her inspiration draws heavily from various artistic periods and cultural influences within Western art history, particularly the early modernists like Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Edouard Manet, and Romare Bearden. By reimagining the classic poses and abstract settings used by these masters, Thomas reclaims agency for women who were often portrayed simply as objects of desire or oppression.
Thomas's work often references the social and political transformations of the 1960s to the 1980s, a period marked by social reform efforts such as the Civil Rights and Black is Beautiful movements, during which African Americans in general – and women in particular – sought to redefine beauty standards. Emerging in the 1960s and 1970s, second-wave feminism is another major influence, with themes of gender equality, reproductive rights, and dismantling oppressive societal norms woven throughout Thomas’ work.
Though African American women including, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, Anna Julia Cooper, Mary Church Terrell and others were instrumental in shaping feminism’s first wave, they were often excluded from the stated goals of the movement, which in its nascence focused on legal issues such as suffrage without attention to additional oppressions laid on Black women through American racism. As the second wave took shape in the 60s and 70s, problems of disparity and discrimination came to the fore, with the term womanism finding its first use in the works of Alice Walker in the late 70s and early 80s. Thomas' art aligns with the efforts of second-wave feminism, specifically womanism, to not only redefine women's roles and representation in society, but to broaden the concerns of feminist thought to address the intersectional needs of whole communities.
Mickalene Thomas, I’ve Been Good to Me, 2015. Image from Rare Posters
Thomas's portrayals of African-American women challenge viewers to consider issues related to female presentation, self-perception, gender, race, sexuality, and power dynamics. She collaborates closely with her subjects, including her ex-girlfriend Maya, her partner Racquel Chevremont, and her late mother, Sandra 'Mama' Bush. Her dedication to her muses is evident in works like the 2014 short film Happy Birthday To A Beautiful Woman: A Portrait Of My Mother. This blend of personal connection, cultural critique, and artistic innovation defines Thomas as a powerful voice in contemporary art.
To celebrate the release of her book, Thomas will embark on her first major international tour, showcasing her work in a series of exhibitions titled Mickalene Thomas: All About Love. The tour will have a place at The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, where her work will be on display from October 20, 2024, to January 12, 2025.
The Barnes exhibit of All About Love will showcase a colorful and diverse array of Thomas' pieces, such as paintings, collages, photography, video, and installations specifically created for the space. Spanning her career from the late 2000s to the present, the works will highlight Thomas’ distinctive artistic practice and intimate compositions that highlight Black femininity in rich domains of visual pleasure, agency, and kinship.
Whether engaging in imaginative dialogue with canonical works from art history or playfully reckoning with popular culture, Thomas's exuberant portraiture offers an empowered vision of beauty and desire through a sensual, Black feminist lens. This international tour will provide an unprecedented opportunity for audiences worldwide to experience the depth and vibrancy of Thomas' work, making it a significant moment in contemporary art.
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