Celebrating the female black queer gaze: Mickalene Thomas

The growing momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement and the increased media focus on black culture have brought a multitude of extraordinary black artists to my attention. My latest and hugely exciting discovery is Mickalene Thomas (b.1971).

Thomas uses a unique combination of paint, fabrics, rhinestones and glitter to create dazzling mixed-media works that draw on western art history and popular culture. Her vision of female beauty and sexuality challenges and subverts stereotypes and is represented by striking black women oozing confidence in their identity and in their own bodies.

In this work, Thomas takes on none other than Manet. I am in love with the boldness of the sitters and the way they defiantly look into the camera. This is a 'double whammy' where the appropriation of an iconic work of art succeeds in both readdressing the marginalisation of black people and the objectification of women in art history. Thomas delivers a seductive and uncompromising restaging of the western canon through the 'gaze of a black woman unapologetically loving other black women’.

In support of Gay Pride Month, for every view of this post and for every like to my instagram post, I will donate £2 to Mind Out, a mental health service run by and for lesbians, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer people in the UK.

#mickalenethomas #blackart #blackartist #blm #femaleartist #feministart #queerart #globalpride #pride #gaypridemonth #gaypride #loveislove #artblog #artblogger #beyondthecanvasblog

Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe: Les Trois Femmes Noires #5, 2017

© Mickalene Thomas https://www.mickalenethomas.com/

Édouard Manet

Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe, 1863

Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Die Neue Sachlichkeit: Christian Schad's "Agosta, the Pigeon-Chested Man, and Rasha, the Black Dove"

Art history is punctuated by a constant juxtaposition of departure from and alignment to tradition. At the same time as some artists are disrupting and trying to innovate, others are formally reconnecting with classical tradition in its broadest sense. Years ago, I studied this phenomenon during the first half of the XX century Europe, the so-called persistence of realism (thank you Christine if you are reading).

German Christian Schad (1894-1932) is one of the most prominent members of the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), a movement that emerged in the 1920s as a response to the disruptive excesses of abstract expressionism. He mostly produced portraits, his style was elegant and precise but never failed to convey unsettling atmospheres. His unsmiling sitters ooze a sense of enigma and underlying complex psychology.

In this picture symmetry and harmony are in sharp contrast with the ambiguous subject matter. Agosta and Rasha are funfair performers, they are not the typical portrait subjects. Schad goes his own way and chooses to celebrate the socially outcast. Agosta, who probably attracted and repelled the public for his physical deformity, is painted like a Bellini Madonna, solemnly enthroned and looking almost regal. He averts his gaze and refuses to engage with the viewer, thus taking control of the relationship. Stop staring at me, he is saying.

Rasha, who is said to have been a snake dancer from Madagascar, is looking straight at us, fearless and proud. But she also looks vulnerable, possibly humiliated by having to wear a stereotypical African dress so we can be entertained. To me, she is the visual representation of the lure of the exotic that has its roots in colonialism and its worldview.

#christianschad #painting #artblog #artblogger #beyondthecanvasblog

Christian Schad (1894 -1982)

Agosta, the Pigeon-Chested Man, and Rasha, the Black Dove, 1929

Tate Modern, London

Njideka Akunyili Crosby's identity tales

A powerhouse. There is no other way to describe this extraordinary artist whose breakneck rise has seen her work displayed and celebrated at some of the major art venues globally (MOCA and Venice Biennale to name a couple).

Nigerian-born, Los Angeles-based Akunyili Crosby (b. 1983) is a child of the African diaspora. We see it in her vibrant work, which is imbued with personal and cultural references. Her large, unframed canvases tell stories about herself and her family, but they are equally filled with nods to Nigerian politics and pop culture. Her process is unique - she uses cut-outs from magazines and transfers them onto the canvas to create a sort of layered narrative 'upholstery'. Her intricate work is suspended between painting, printing and photography - it needs to be viewed from a distance to appreciate the complexity of the composition, but can only be fully understood if we look closely at the details of each individual snapshot.

In 2018, she was asked by Art on the Underground to create a mural for Brixton station, the area of South London where the Black Caribbean community settled in the late 1940s. Njideka approached the subject of the Windrush generation, which has now turned into a shameful page of British history, with care and respect. As a non-caribbean, but also as an immigrant herself, she wanted to do it justice. She spent 4 months in London doing research in the archives to make sure she had the knowledge required to produce a well-informed visual tribute. The result is "Remain, Thriving", a poignant contemporary conversation piece that depicts a group of people in a domestic setting. Akunyili Crosby paints them surrounded by objects new and old symbolising the connection between the past and the present, and the strength of their identity as they make a new life for themselves in the UK. In this urban art installation we recognise the same powerful sense of intimacy that runs through Njideka's body of work, a trademark of her ability to represent the merging of different cultures with all their complexities.

Lastly, I wanted to thank Brooklyn Rail for organising such a compelling and insightful talk, and not least for showing the art world how to do the zoom thing properly.

#NjidekaAkunyiliCrosby #contemporaryart #figurativeart #femaleartist #blackart #artblogger #beyondthecanvasblog

Njideka Akunyili Crosby, "Remain, Thriving", 2018

My photo at Brixton Station, London