Mickalene Thomas on Black Womanhood: Psychology, Pop Culture, and the Canon

Isabella Ditzler

Advisor: Dr. Ann Reynolds

Abstract

In this thesis, I analyze how the artist Mickalene Thomas (b. 1971) utilizes mirrors, popular culture, and canonical imagery as conduits for her artistic messages. While other scholars have investigated her use of materials or how she creates work within the black queer gaze, my work deviates in that I focus on how she utilizes specific imagery to convey and challenge certain facets of the black female experience in Western society, specifically the United States. I will argue that her work combines Jacques Lacan’s theory of “the Mirror Stage,” popular culture of the 1970s and onward, as well as reappropriations of art historical imagery to create works that speak to the experiences of not just Thomas, but to that of other black women, as well.