LGBT Artwork: Sleep: Deux Femmes Noires
7:00 AMLGBT Artwork
From Lesbos to New York
Curated by Camille O'Leary
Mickalene Thomas, a contemporary New York artist, explores black female celebrity and sexuality in her work. Her exhibition "Origin of the Universe" takes its title from one of Gustave Courbet's erotic works, a view of a woman's torso and genitalia. In her exhibition, Thomas re-imagines classical works and replaces the original figures with powerful, extravagant black women who challenge traditional ideals of beauty. Studded with rhinestones and bursting with rich color, her portraits, landscapes, and collages draw heavily from the history of art but take on a life and originality of their own in her hands.
Sleep: Deux Femmes Noires takes another erotic Courbet piece, Le Sommeil, which was originally a painting of two nude white women sleeping, limbs intertwined. This depiction of lesbianism was strictly for male gratification, in an indoor space. Thomas transforms the blonde and brunette of Courbet's fantasy into voluptuous yellow and black women, plucking them out of the domestic indoor scene and placing them into a brightly colored outdoor landscape. The collage-like effect, punctuated by the searing orange that shows through the cracks, is deliberately fragmented and jarring, revealing the process behind the work. The bold colors challenge Courbet's original work and reclaim it as a statement of feminine power.
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| Mickalene Thomas, Sleep: Deux Femmes Noires, 2012 |
Mickalene Thomas, a contemporary New York artist, explores black female celebrity and sexuality in her work. Her exhibition "Origin of the Universe" takes its title from one of Gustave Courbet's erotic works, a view of a woman's torso and genitalia. In her exhibition, Thomas re-imagines classical works and replaces the original figures with powerful, extravagant black women who challenge traditional ideals of beauty. Studded with rhinestones and bursting with rich color, her portraits, landscapes, and collages draw heavily from the history of art but take on a life and originality of their own in her hands.
Sleep: Deux Femmes Noires takes another erotic Courbet piece, Le Sommeil, which was originally a painting of two nude white women sleeping, limbs intertwined. This depiction of lesbianism was strictly for male gratification, in an indoor space. Thomas transforms the blonde and brunette of Courbet's fantasy into voluptuous yellow and black women, plucking them out of the domestic indoor scene and placing them into a brightly colored outdoor landscape. The collage-like effect, punctuated by the searing orange that shows through the cracks, is deliberately fragmented and jarring, revealing the process behind the work. The bold colors challenge Courbet's original work and reclaim it as a statement of feminine power.
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