Muse: Mickalene Thomas: Photographs

Mickalene Thomas, known for her large-scale, multitextured and rhinestone-encrusted paintings of domestic interiors and portraits, identifies the photographic image as a defining touchstone for her practice. Thomas began to photograph herself and her mother as a student at Yale, studying under David Hilliard a pivotal experience for her as an artist. This volume is the first to gather together her various approaches to photography, including portraits, collages, Polaroids and other processes. The work is a personal act of deconstruction and reappropriation. Working primarily in her studio, Thomas' portraits draw equally from memories of her mother, 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. The interior space of her studio, a reappearing character in many of her photographs and paintings, frequently takes on as much of a performative role as her models do. The space exudes a thick, cozy physicality from its layers of fur, rugs, wood paneling and multipatterned linoleum tiles all of which are richly laden with sensory triggers of a 1970s American rumpus room."

This volume is the first to gather together Mickalene Thomas's various approaches to photography, including portraits, collages, Polaroids, and other processes. The book also includes a section entitled t te- -t te which features a curated selection of images by artists who she considers to be an artistic community of influence--from Malick Sidib to more contemporary artists such as Zanele Muholi and LaToya Ruby Frazier.