Madame Mama Bush in Black and White
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Caption
Mickalene Thomas American, born 1971. Madame Mama Bush in Black and White, 2007; printed 2011. Chromogenic print, Sheet: 18 3/4 x 23 1/2 in. (47.6 x 59.7 cm) Image: 16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mickalene Thomas, 2011.26. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.2011.26.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Madame Mama Bush in Black and White
Date
2007; printed 2011
Medium
Chromogenic print
Classification
Dimensions
Sheet: 18 3/4 x 23 1/2 in. (47.6 x 59.7 cm) Image: 16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm)
Signatures
Signed, dated and titled in ink on verso.
Credit Line
Gift of Mickalene Thomas
Accession Number
2011.26
Rights
© artist or artist's estate
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Frequent Art Questions
What is the relationship between Thomas and the models?
Thomas typically works with friends and family members as models for her paintings and photographs. Madame Mama Bush is Thomas's own mother, Sandra Bush. Bush herself worked as a fashion model in the 1970s.Thomas has said: “I believe that the sitter has the power (or more power than I have) over what’s being presented. I’m not overly choreographing the women I work with; I’m really trying to capture a quality within them. They are presenting to me, through their lens, how they want to be represented."Tell me more.
In this photograph, artist Mickalene Thomas has captured her mother. Her work often centers the black female body and it was this series of photos of her mother that inspired her in the first place.She says: "By selecting women of color, I am quite literally raising their visibility and inserting their presence into the conversation… By portraying real women with their own unique history, beauty and background, I’m working to diversify the representations of black women in art.”Who is the model in Mickalene Thomas' "Madame Mama Bush" portrait?
The model is actually Thomas' mother, who was a fashion model in the 1970s.She's so regal! It feels like a great piece to put in conversation with a European Venus painting.Great observation. And that is exactly what Thomas' work is all about. She purposefully utilized the composition and tropes of European paintings but inverts it by making the woman African American. "Madame Mama Bush" is indeed a modern day Venus harkening all the way back to the Renaissance.
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