#Vintage nude jet calendar models series

Thomas has also mined art history for subject matter, from Matisse and Manet to Hockney and Bearden.

So perhaps IвЂ™m just as guilty as a man for my reasons for wanting to look at, photograph, and paint women.вЂќ

I guess I look for myself in these women.вЂќ In a conversation with Carrie Mae Weems in 2015 she said, вЂњI have a deep desire and sensuality for women thatвЂ™s inescapable. All of the stronger qualities I feel I possess. Thomas has said her muses have вЂњbeauty, a little uncertainty, perseverance, and a sort of hunger. The titles of ThomasвЂ™s works are just as brazen: Do Ya Think IвЂ™m Sexy and Hot, Wild, Unrestricted. They own theВ space theyвЂ™re not odalisques subject to the male gaze. She often uses the same models, and they all look you straight in the eye and exude confidence and self-awareness. вЂњThereвЂ™s always more to discover and explore.вЂќ ThereвЂ™s a wood-paneled corner in her studio where she sets up a domestic interior in boldly clashing patterns and colors, a different one for each sitting-1970s decor on steroids. вЂњI love everything about the Black female body,вЂќ Thomas tells me. Embracing both the high and the low, sheвЂ™s a DJ remix artist whoвЂ™s looked closely at the work of the great collagist Romare Bearden, who had looked closely at Matisse and Manet. program, with the idea of combining SeuratвЂ™s pointillist dots and vernacular bling. She started putting rhinestones in her paintings when she was at YaleвЂ™s M.F.A. вЂњSo what IвЂ™m doing is reimagining JetвЂ™s representation of African American women as objects of desire by composing the figures within ornamental tableaux to exhibit Black female empowerment.вЂќ Her reimaginings take the form of very large paintings, in which images from JetвЂ™s archives of nude or skimpily clothed Black women interact with an array of other forms and materials-including oil and acrylic paint and rhinestones. вЂњThe Jet Calendar was advertised as the first вЂBlack Is BeautifulвЂ™ calendar, shifting the magazine away from Eurocentric beauty standards,вЂќ she says.

#Vintage nude jet calendar models series

The work Thomas is making for the New York and London shows is a series she calls вЂњJet Blue,вЂќ based on the pinup calendars that Jet magazine published from 1971 (the year she was born) to 1977. The curator Racquel Chevremont, her life partner and muse, has two children of her own. IвЂ™m really hoping to create a community around here for artists.вЂќ She has two miniature labradoodles (Puma and Toast) and co-parents a young daughter from an earlier relationship. вЂњMost artists whoвЂ™ve come to Clinton Hill have gone,вЂќ she says, вЂњbut IвЂ™ve stuck it out. For the last decade she has lived in BrooklynвЂ™s Clinton Hill, walking distance from her 5,500-square-foot studio in the rapidly developing Navy Yard area. вЂњI think it comes with the notion of ownership, and I will not be owned.вЂќ Thomas is defiantly independent and unflinchingly herself. вЂњThe idea of representation is old,вЂќ she tells me. (SheвЂ™s also showing 10 new works at Nathalie Obadia, her longtime Paris gallery.) She left her previous dealer Lehmann Maupin three years ago, and although she will show at LГ©vy Gorvy, the gallery does not actually represent her-nor does anyone else. The four locations where Thomas will show this fall are all part of the LГ©vy Gorvy gallery empire. The New York TimesвЂ™ critic Roberta Smith, looking back on ThomasвЂ™s 2012 mid-career survey at the Brooklyn Museum, wrote, вЂњNo Manhattan museum had the nerve to do a show that questioned so many different norms.вЂќ This fall, 31 monumental new works-including collage-like paintings of magisterial Black women and social-political вЂњResistвЂќ pictures-are appearing in New York, London, Paris, and Hong Kong as part of an exhibition collectively titled вЂњBeyond the Pleasure Principle.вЂќ At the age of 50, Thomas is one of the most dominant and fearless artists ofВ her generation. вЂњHere sheвЂ™s talking about Europe again,вЂќ she remembers her cousins teasing her, saying, вЂњGirl, you donвЂ™t know about no Europe.вЂќ SheвЂ™s been there more times than she can count since then. When Mickalene Thomas was growing up in New Jersey, she kept telling her family that she was going to move to Europe.