Who is the model in Mickalene Thomas' "Madame Mama Bush" portrait?
The model is actually Thomas' mother, who was a fashion model in the 1970s.
She's so regal! It feels like a great piece to put in conversation with a European Venus painting.
Great observation. And that is exactly what Thomas' work is all about. She purposefully utilized the composition and tropes of European paintings but inverts it by making the woman African American. "Madame Mama Bush" is indeed a modern day Venus harkening all the way back to the Renaissance.
On this glass plate with a mustached person (40.157), who are they?
The two men on this glass platter are James Blaine and John Logan. Blaine is on the left. James Blaine was a presidential candidate and John Logan his running mate as vice-president on the Republican ticket in 1884. They lost to Grover Cleveland and his running mate Thomas Hendricks.
The platter was manufactured in the US around 1884.
Hi, in Joan Semmel's Intimacy Autonomy, why are their bodies blue?
Semmel was reacting against the girlie-magazine culture and pervasive "sexploitation" that she felt was prevalent in New York, so she opted to reframe sexuality from a woman's perspective.
She captured the human form in a very naturalistic way, but she made the colors less "real" to get us to look at the subject in a new way.
This takes it even further away from pornography, in addition to the unusual vantage point.
What was the inspiration for this piece? And where is Infinity I, if this is Infinity II?
Fukami takes inspiration from his materials, like this traditional kaolin porcelain and seihakuji glaze that he often works with.
This is number 2 of 8 works from this series. I'm not sure where exactly the others are, but they would be in other collections around the world.
What can you tell me about Ethel Smyth?
Dame Ethel Mary Smyth is famous both as a barrier-breaking female composer and a suffrage activist of the early 20th century. She was born in London, to a military family. She attended the prestigious Leipzig Conservatory, studied under Johannes Brahms and Antonín Dvořák, and soon became a major English composer. She gained popularity in 1893 with her "Mass in D."
The plate is a piano, referencing Smyth's work as a composer. The stand on the piano includes notation for The Boatswain's Mate, a popular opera written by Smyth in 1916, which, according to Chicago, incorporates a feminist perspective. The three-dimensionality of the plate relates not just to the chronological development of The Dinner Party plates, but also to the way in which, according to Chicago, Smyth pushed boundaries with her career and her sexuality.
Is it significant that the muscles of the demon on one of the ancient Japanese plates look like clouds?
Well since the figure pictured is Fujin, the Japanese god of wind, his appearance definitely relates to the sky and, by extension, clouds!
Could you tell me where these ceramics were made? Is it the city of Jingdezhen?
Yes it is. Production of blue-and-white porcelain for the imperial court at Jingdezhen continued into the Qing dynasty.
Thank you so much! That's my HOMETOWN!!!
Wow, what a coincidence!!! The reign mark along the top of the vessel dates it to the reign of the Qianlong emperor and the five-clawed dragon motif was limited to imperial usage. The dragon, five- or four-clawed, and clouds have auspicious connotations and can be found in a number of different media from the time.
Can you tell me about Fuck Painting #6?
This is one of the first batch of such paintings Betty Tompkins created. She abandoned the series because no one was interested in showing it, much less buying it. Tompkins has created more Fuck Paintings in recent years.
She stated this about the painting: "I was using my husband's pornography. There was a two-fold objection, one was that I was embracing the pleasure principle above everything else and the second thing was that the models were paid, and there are people who think that if you did porn, then or now, that you were being exploited. I've never used material where my sense of the people involved was exploitation - my sense is, they're getting paid, they're working, but also, they're having a really good time, and that was one of my first takes on porn. When I first saw it when I was 21 years old I thought, 'They look like they're having fun. Let's all have fun!'"
Is the Current Chair by Vivian Beer in production? Can this chair be bought somewhere?
At the moment, her website only lists a 1/6th scale model for sale.
Here's the link: http://www.vivianbeer.com/store/
How old is this piano?
This pianoforte dates to around 1870. So it was made around 150 years ago.
