Portrait of Qusuquzah

Portrait of Qusuquzah, (2008) is a primary example of Mickalene Thomas’ mastery with photography. Both pose and composition of the photograph are layered with carefully articulated references ranging from the paintings of Édouard Manet to the Blaxploitation films of the 1970’s. To create the photograph, Thomas situated a model in the artist’s Brooklyn studio: in a dress and with accessories from 1970s, seated on a sofa decorated with ‘70s style tapestries and patterned cushions, in front of a wood-paneled wall, installed with jackets of LP records by African American artists (e.g., Diana Ross). Thomas’ work centers on themes of race, sexuality and power while critiquing traditional portraiture, the gaze, and the artist/model relationship. When speaking of about the encounters with the strong feminine characters she photographs, Thomas remarked, “The fact that the gaze in question is from one woman to another is more powerful, to me, than the male gaze.”