Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 24
Mickalene ThomasPortrait of Maya #102024
2024
About the Item
The unapologetic Portrait of Maya #10 (2024), originally conceived as a monumental 8-foot-tall artwork as part of the Broad Collection 2017, is a bold celebration of love and sexuality - conveying strength, beauty, power, and vulnerability all at once. Modes of intimate relations inform Portrait of Maya #10, drawing from a series of photographs (Remember Me, 2006) taken with a 35mm disposable camera by Thomas. The images capture Maya, her muse and lover from years gone by, in their home and basement studio on Lexington Avenue, Brooklyn.
The sensual Maya stands empowered, sparkled, and poised. With her arms raised behind her head like wings spread, she commands her outward gaze and her surroundings, exuding a powerful sense of self-possession through which she emboldens her viewers, forcing them to engage with her.
Her work also celebrates the textures of materials just as she honours the textures and contours of Black womanhood. Drawn to the unconventional, she embraced rhinestones - first out of necessity and later in reference to French Impressionism, in particular Pointillism and the works of Georges Seurat. The rhinestones came to symbolise the complexity of femininity in her work, becoming a defining element of her artistic language. The acrylic and rhinestone composition in the original portrait, transformed into silkscreen overprints and hand-applied glitter in this edition, also embodies Thomas’s signature ability to apply several layers of material and symbolic meaning, unmasking our world of appearances into a single surface while challenging conventional boundaries of technique and medium.
Collage is a foundational element in her practice, revealing the conception and intimate evolution of her artistic vision - visible also in the double exposure on Maya's chest. As Thomas described it, the projected image is almost like an X-ray, peering into Maya’s soul. By layering multiple photographs and juxtaposing painted with photographic elements, Thomas creates a striking depth of field, generating rhythm and movement.
Unifying all these elements in this larger-than-life work, Thomas invites viewers into the bold and dynamic universe she has created in Portrait of Maya #10, from which any viewer would be unable to divert their gaze.
“ So, yeah, it's Maya. She's incredible, incredibly beautiful. But also has a very strong sense of awareness of who she is in the world. I really wanted to convey the vulnerability but the strength in her and how she's standing. I wanted to create her as this monumental sort of essence of being. „
—Mickalene Thomas
- Creator:Mickalene Thomas (1971 -, American)
- Creation Year:2024
- Dimensions:Height: 23.35 in (59.3 cm)Width: 20.67 in (52.5 cm)
- More Editions & Sizes:Edition of 732Price: $2,356
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Framing:Framing Options Available
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Zug, CH
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU1562216486742
Mickalene Thomas
Although she’s best known for her vibrant and textural collage portraits of Black women, contemporary artist Mickalene Thomas is in fact a master of many mediums, including photography, video, sculpture and printmaking. Born in Camden, New Jersey, and raised by her mother, a fashion model, Thomas enrolled in after-school art classes at the Newark Museum of Art in Newark, New Jersey, and the Henry Street Settlement in New York City as a child. Later, she would earn fine art degrees from Pratt Institute and Yale University.
Inspired in part by her strong, matriarchal upbringing and her own identity as a queer Black woman, Thomas focuses on female power, beauty and sexuality in her works. She cites a 1990s-era exhibition of Carrie Mae Weems’s work at the Portland Art Museum in Oregon as being critically important to her becoming an artist. In her work, Thomas commonly pulls from the art history canon, riffing frequently on the styles and compositions of early modernists such as Gustave Courbet, Édouard Manet and Henri Matisse, as well as more contemporary artists like Romare Bearden and David Hockney. She recontextualizes their paintings by restaging them with Black subjects, using signature materials like rhinestones, enamel and acrylic paint to profound effect. Relatedly, for a collaboration with Dior, Thomas reinvented the house’s iconic Bar jacket and Lady Dior handbag to become, essentially, wearable Claude Monet landscapes.
Thomas also investigates the idea of Black celebrity in her work, painting portraits of such Black icons as Whitney Houston, Oprah Winfrey and Eartha Kitt. In 2008, Thomas painted the first individual silkscreen portrait of then–First Lady Michelle Obama, which was exhibited for the first time in the National Portrait Gallery’s “Americans Now” show.
Thomas’s work can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Brooklyn Museum of Art, among others. She has received such accolades as the Timerhi Award for Leadership in the Arts in 2010, the Brooklyn Museum Asher B. Durand Award in 2012 and the Anonymous Was a Woman Award in 2013. In 2015, Thomas was named a USA Francie Bishop Good & David Horvitz Fellow.
Find Mickalene Thomas’s art on 1stDibs today.
About the Seller
4.2
Vetted Professional Seller
Every seller passes strict standards for authenticity and reliability
Established in 2014
1stDibs seller since 2021
60 sales on 1stDibs
Typical response time: 16 hours
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Shipping from: Opfikon, Switzerland
- Return Policy
Authenticity Guarantee
In the unlikely event there’s an issue with an item’s authenticity, contact us within 1 year for a full refund. DetailsMoney-Back Guarantee
If your item is not as described, is damaged in transit, or does not arrive, contact us within 7 days for a full refund. Details24-Hour Cancellation
You have a 24-hour grace period in which to reconsider your purchase, with no questions asked.Vetted Professional Sellers
Our world-class sellers must adhere to strict standards for service and quality, maintaining the integrity of our listings.Price-Match Guarantee
If you find that a seller listed the same item for a lower price elsewhere, we’ll match it.Trusted Global Delivery
Our best-in-class carrier network provides specialized shipping options worldwide, including custom delivery.More From This Seller
View AllYellow Mimosa, July 23, 2015 - Contemporary, 21st Century, Screenprint
By Donald Sultan
Located in Zug, CH
Donald Sultan, Yellow Mimosa, July 23,
Screenprint in colors with yellow flocking on 4-ply museum board.
Edition of 50.
81.3 x 114.3 cm (32.2 x 45.5 in)
Signed, dated, numbered, and titled accompanied by Certificate of Authenticity
Published by Lococo Fine Art, St. Louis.
In mint condition, as acquired from the publisher
PLEASE NOTE: Edition numbers could vary from the one shown in the pictures. The piece is offered unframed.
Sultan’s work incorporates basic geometric and organic forms with a formal purity that is both subtle and monumental. His images are weighty, with equal emphasis on both negative and positive areas. His powerfully sensual, fleshy object representations are rendered through a labor-intensive and unique method.
"The image in the front is very fragile, but it conveys the loaded meaning of everything that is contained in the painting." — Donald Sultan
This print of flowing yellow mimosa blossoms, which shows all the textural qualities that the artist excels at in his printmaking projects, is made with several layers of color silkscreen, some matte finish inks, and some glossy. Mimosas depicts the flowering plant Mimosa, which is also called the sensitive plant or sleepy plant. Sultan seems to have taken inspiration from the name with the dark black, chalky stems flowing down and covering most of the page and the clusters of white spots symbolizing the blossoms.
DONALD SULTAN
Donald Sultan (born 1951, Asheville, US) is a distinguished painter, sculptor, and printmaker, who rose to prominence in the late 1970s as part of the “New Image” movement. He is best known for the use of abstracted, geometric black forms against organic areas of bright color.
Donald Sultan (USA, born 1951) is a distinguished painter, sculptor, and printmaker, who rose to prominence in the late 1970s as part of the New Yorker “New Image” movement. He has a unique artistic method and innovative approach to traditional subject matter. Known as Abstract Representation, Donald Sultan´s art is characterized by the use of geometric black forms set against organic areas of bright color, thus bringing an abstract sensibility to his iconographic images of still life. Throughout his career he has revisited and reinvented still life, using images of lemons, poppies, playing cards, fruits, flowers, and other objects. Donald Sultan’s Lemons...
Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Screen
White Tulips and Vase, Feb 25 - Contemporary, 21st Century, Silkscreen, Tulips
By Donald Sultan
Located in Zug, CH
Donald Sultan, White Tulips and Vase, Feb 25
White Tulips and Vase, Feb 25 - Contemporary, 21st Century, Silkscreen, Tulips
Silkscreen
Edition of 50
117 x 117 cm (42.1 x 42.1 in)
Signed, dated, numbered, and titled, accompanied by Certificate of Authenticity
In mint condition, as acquired from the publisher
White Tulips and Vase, Feb 25, 2014, belongs to Sultan’s famous Flower series. The artist is credited for the revival of the still life tradition where the image is deconstructed to the basic elements, thus Sultan’s work remains both abstract and representational.
"The images... are really about the architecture in the paintings; they seem so massive and strong and permanent but nothing is permanent." — Donald Sultan
White Tulips and Vase, Feb 25, 2014, represents the Sultan's still-life, where the shape of the object is reduced to the bare essentials. The image reveals one of the key features of Sultan’s work - the material juxtaposition- the contrast of a weighty background with ethereal shapes of the flowers. The printing technique translates the Sultan’s original paintings’ texture: linoleum, tar, flocking, plaster, tile, wood. This work is a silkscreen with enamel inks and tar-like texture on 4-ply museum board.
DONALD SULTAN
Donald Sultan (born 1951, Asheville, US) is a distinguished painter, sculptor, and printmaker, who rose to prominence in the late 1970s as part of the “New Image” movement. He is best known for the use of abstracted, geometric black forms against organic areas of bright color.
Donald Sultan (USA, born 1951) is a distinguished painter, sculptor, and printmaker, who rose to prominence in the late 1970s as part of the New Yorker “New Image” movement. He has a unique artistic method and innovative approach to traditional subject matter. Known as Abstract Representation, Donald Sultan´s art is characterized by the use of geometric black forms set against organic areas of bright color, thus bringing an abstract sensibility to his iconographic images of still life. Throughout his career he has revisited and reinvented still life, using images of lemons, poppies, playing cards, fruits, flowers, and other objects. Donald Sultan’s Lemons...
Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Screen
Fairmount Forest - Contemporary, 21st Century, Pigment, Limited Edition
By Robert Longo
Located in Zug, CH
Robert Longo, Fairmount Forest
Contemporary, 21st Century, Pigment, Limited Edition
Pigment print
Edition of 25
90,6 x 152,2 cm (35.6 x 59.9 in.)
Signed, accompanied by Certificate o...
Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Pigment
Crystal Chandelier - Contemporary, 21st Century, Print, Limited Edition, Black
By Robert Longo
Located in Zug, CH
Robert Longo, Crystal Chandelier
Contemporary, 21st Century, Print, Limited Edition
Edition of 15
127 x 151,5 cm (50 x 59.6 in.)
Signed and numbered
In excellent condition
Longo is...
Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Pigment
Angel's Wing (Small Version)- Contemporary, 21st Century, , Limited Edition
By Robert Longo
Located in Zug, CH
Robert Longo, Angel's Wing (Small Version),
Contemporary, 21st Century, Pigment Print, Limited Edition
Pigment print
Edition of 30
55,3 x 75,5 cm (21.7 x 29.7 in.)
Signed, accompanie...
Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Pigment
Freud’s Desk and Chair, Study Room - Contemporary, 21st Century, Limited Edition
By Robert Longo
Located in Zug, CH
Robert Longo, Freud’s Desk and Chair, Study Room
Contemporary, 21st Century, Limited Edition
Pigment print
Edition of 30
81,3 x 109,7 cm (32 x 43.1 in.)
Unf...
Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Pigment
You May Also Like
FEMME ASSISE
By Enrico Baj
Located in Aventura, FL
Silkscreen on paper with mixed media, felt and glitter. Hand signed and numbered by the artist. Edition of 250. Artwork image size approx 31.5 x 23.5 inches. Artwork sheet size 39....
Category
1970s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Screen, Felt, Glitter, Paper, Mixed Media
$1,650 Sale Price
25% Off
Hardwood Suite #3
By John Fincher
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This unframed, signed, limited edition pigment print by artist John Fincher exists in an edition of 40. Paper size is 30"h x 24"w with an image size of 22"h...
Category
2010s Abstract Figurative Prints
Materials
Cotton, Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Digital, Archival Pigment, Digital...
Hardwood Suite #4
By John Fincher
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This unframed, signed, limited edition pigment print by artist John Fincher exists in an edition of 40. Paper size is 30"h x 24"w with an image size of 22"h...
Category
2010s Abstract Figurative Prints
Materials
Cotton, Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Digital, Archival Pigment, Digital...
Hardwood Suite #1
By John Fincher
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This unframed, signed, limited edition pigment print by artist John Fincher exists in an edition of 40. Paper size is 30"h x 24"w with an image size of 22"h...
Category
2010s Abstract Figurative Prints
Materials
Cotton, Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Digital, Archival Pigment, Digital...
Hardwood Suite #2
By John Fincher
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This unframed, signed, limited edition pigment print by artist John Fincher exists in an edition of 40. Paper size is 30"h x 24"w with an image size of 22"h...
Category
2010s Abstract Figurative Prints
Materials
Cotton, Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Digital, Archival Pigment, Digital...
Marilyn Minter: Merry Merry: Limited Edition Large Christmas Stickers Rare Art
By Marilyn Minter
Located in New York, NY
Marilyn Minter
Merry Merry: Limited Edition Large Christmas Stickers, 2007
One oversized sheet of die-cut vinyl stickers which rolls up and ships in a tube
with original tube from ar...
Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Mixed Media
Materials
Plaster, Screen
