Mickalene Thomas, Origin of the Universe at the Brooklyn Museum or What I Fell Into Today!

Hurray for Arnold Lehman for bringing Mickalene Thomas’s collage-like paintings that glitter with rhinestones, enamel, and bright acrylics from Brooklyn to Brooklyn. It’s woman’s are, Black Woman’s Art, erotic art, that draws inspiration for sources such as Hockney, Courbet, Manet, and Matisse. Her model for many of these paintings was her mother, Sandra Bush. The film Thomas made of her interview with her mother as her mother was dying, was heart-breaking. While backing up to get the full effect of one of Mickalene’s paintings, I fell backward over the low rope and into the installation of her living area. People were trying to schlep me up by the arm. Oh, my shoulder! But my calcium pills must be working well! The floor was hardwood and tile and I am typing and laughing about it.