Muse
Mickalene Thomas Photographs
Will be published approx. on 19. October 2015
Book
Hardback
152 pages
978-1-59711-314-4 (ISBN)
Description
Mickalene Thomas, known for her large-scale, multi-textured, and rhinestone-encrusted paintings of domestic interiors and portraits, has also identified the photographic image as a defining touchstone for her practice. Thomas first began to photograph herself and her mother as a student at Yale-a pivotal experience for her as an artist. While working across multiple series, much of her photographic work functions as a personal act of deconstruction and reappropriation-both of images she has created herself and images she has singled out as influence. With each series, she grapples with and asserts new definitions of beauty and inspiration. Thomas's portraits draw equally from 1970s black-is-beautiful images of women such as supermodel Beverly Johnson and actress Vonetta McGee; Edouard Manet's odalisque figures; and the mise-en-scene studio portraiture of James Van Der Zee and Malick Sidibe, to mention a few. Perhaps of greatest importance, however, this collection of portraits and staged scenes reflects a very personal community of inspiration as well-a collection of muses that includes herself, her mother, and her friends and lovers, emphasizing the communal and social aspects of art-making and creativity that pervade her work. This volume is the first to gather together her various approaches to photography, including portraits, collages, Polaroids, and other processes, and will be the foundation for a major traveling exhibition of the work to launch in 2015.
Reviews / Votes
The large-scale portraits in Muse: Mickalene Thomas Photographs (Aperture) which publishes this autumn, combines aspects of classical odalisque paintings with those of fashion photography of the 1970s Black is Beautiful-era (when her mother was a model), among other influences, to examine race, sexuality, the artist's gaze, and the construction of images. -AdvocateLike a combination of Malick Sidibe's studio portraits of Milian youth and '70s blaxploitation films, Mickalene Thomas's photographs of black women are visually dynamic and positively genuine. -Art News
Provides the first overview of her dazzling series of photographs featuring black women -Harper's Bazaar
Thomas revels in a theatrical form of feminine display. -The New Yorker photo booth
Mama Bush's beauty is indelibly preserved in her daughter's ideal photographic images, enduring memorials to her mother, the pivotal muse in her work, her mirror reflecting a gaze between two women, and the self. -The New Yorker photo booth
Thomas is a playful and intense explorer of the self-preservation of beautiful women. -The New York Times Magazine
The black skin of these glammed-up superheroes is often the only thing in these photos that is not a riot of ornament and color, but blackness as photographed by Thomas is a riot all its own. -The New York Times Magazine
She's created a vast body of portraits that critically deconstruct definitions of beauty, race, and gender-specifically for black women-:and redefine them on her own terms -The New York Times
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Illustrations
Illustrated in colour and duotone throughout
Dimensions
Height: 330 mm
Width: 255 mm
Weight
1490 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-59711-314-4 (9781597113144)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Mickalene Thomas earned her BFA in painting at Pratt Institute in 2000 and an MFA at the Yale University School of Art in 2002. Thomas participated in residencies at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, 2000-3, and at the Versailles Foundation Munn Artists Program, Giverny, France, 2011. Her work has been included in countless exhibitions worldwide, including at La Conservera, Ceuti, Spain (2009); National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. (2010); Hara Museum, Tokyo (2011), Santa Monica Museum of Art, California (2012); and Brooklyn Museum (2012-13). She is represented by Lehmann Maupin in New York, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia in Paris. Mickalene Thomas earned her BFA in painting at Pratt Institute in 2000 and an MFA at the Yale University School of Art in 2002. Thomas participated in residencies at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, 2000-3, and at the Versailles Foundation Munn Artists Program, Giverny, France, 2011. Her work has been included in countless exhibitions worldwide, including at La Conservera, Ceuti, Spain (2009); National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. (2010); Hara Museum, Tokyo (2011), Santa Monica Museum of Art, California (2012); and Brooklyn Museum (2012-13). She is represented by Lehmann Maupin in New York, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia in Paris.