Interior: Zebra with Two Chairs and Funky Fur
Artist
Mickalene Thomas
(American, born 1971)
Date2014
Mediumcollage with relief, intaglio, lithography, archival inkjet, enamel paint, gold leaf, water soluble artist crayon on acid free 4-ply Crescent mat board
Dimensionssheet: 109.2 × 134.6 cm (43 × 53 in.)
ClassificationsCollages / Assemblages
Markingson verso: lower-left, stamp of publisher's chop
Credit LineChapin Riley Fund at the Greater Worcester Community Foundation
Object number2019.16
Label TextDrawing from art history and popular culture, Mickalene Thomas’s works confront traditional notions of beauty as they pertain to class, race, and gender. Interior: Zebra with Two Chairs and Funky Fur is an editioned collage based on a 2012 painting of the same title. One of the most recognizable aspects of Thomas’s work is her appropriation of a Black 1970s aesthetic as reflected here in the paneled wood, bold colors, cacophonous patterns, and animal prints—all of which harken back to her childhood home. Simultaneously, her patchwork interiors resonate with a myriad of cultural influences like1950s and ‘60s Pop Art, Gee’s Bend quilts, paintings by Henri Matisse and Paul Gauguin, as well as Blaxploitation films like Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones. Tandem Press, the print studio which published the collage in collaboration with Thomas, considers this collage one of the most challenging works ever created since its inception in 1987.On View
Not on view
