Faith Ringgold
Faith Ringgold was an American painter whose oil paintings and acrylic story quilts combine fabric, painted canvas, and Black American narratives.
Painter
Mickalene Thomas
Mickalene Thomas is an American painter known for acrylic and enamel portraits with rhinestones, collage, and patterned interiors celebrating Black women.
Mickalene Thomas quick facts
Explore Mickalene Thomas's materials, acrylic and enamel layers, portrait methods, rhinestone decoration, and painted wood-panel and canvas supports.
| Born | 1971 · Camden, New Jersey, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Died | — |
| Nationality | American |
| Movements | Contemporary art · Black feminist art |
| Paint types | Acrylic paint · Enamel paint |
| Painting surfaces | Wood panels · Canvas mounted on wood panel |
| Painting methods | Staging and photographing models, transferring photographic compositions, layering paint and collage, and applying rhinestones by hand |
| Common subjects | Black women, portraits, elaborate domestic interiors, beauty, intimacy, and reinterpretations of art history |
| Other materials | Rhinestones, silkscreen elements, photographic collage, and gold leaf in selected works |
| Notable works | A-E-I-O-U and Sometimes Y · Portrait of Mnonja · Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe: Les Trois Femmes Noires |
Sources: National Museum of Women in the Arts: biography and materials, NMWA: A-E-I-O-U and Sometimes Y, Smithsonian American Art Museum: Portrait of Mnonja, The Broad: painting supports and materials, Seattle Art Museum: acrylic, enamel, oil, and rhinestone works, and PAFA: acrylic and enamel on wood panels.
Paint types used by Mickalene Thomas
In A-E-I-O-U and Sometimes Y (2009), Thomas combines acrylic, enamel, rhinestones, and a wood panel; the rhinestones are embellishment, not paint.
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Acrylic paint
The National Museum of Women in the Arts records acrylic on wood panel in Thomas’s A-E-I-O-U and Sometimes Y (2009). She layers color beneath hand-placed rhinestones, using the painted field to build a dense, decorative portrait surface. The work documents acrylic as one material in a composition that also includes attached embellishments.
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Enamel paint
NMWA identifies enamel in the same panel work, alongside acrylic. The glossy enamel and acrylic are separate paint media, while the rhinestones are adhered embellishments rather than paint. Thomas combines these materials to complicate the surface of a portrait and bring collage-like texture into painting.
Sources: National Museum of Women in the Arts: A-E-I-O-U and Sometimes Y (2009), rhinestones, acrylic, and enamel on wood panel; Detroit Institute of Arts: Something You Can Feel; U.S. Department of State: Mickalene Thomas.
Painting surfaces used by Mickalene Thomas
Documented works by Mickalene Thomas use Wood, Canvas, with examples below clarifying when a material is a painted ground, backing, or constructed element.
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Wood
Thomas builds painted works on wood panels, including A-E-I-O-U and Sometimes Y, which NMWA records with acrylic, enamel, and rhinestones. The rigid support carries a layered surface of paint and attached embellishments, making construction part of the composition. The catalog records the panel beneath these materials.
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Canvas
Some of Thomas’s works begin on canvas that is later mounted onto a wood panel. The textile remains the immediate painted support, while the panel provides a rigid backing for the finished work. This construction should be distinguished from paintings made directly on wood.
Sources: National Museum of Women in the Arts: biography and materials, NMWA: A-E-I-O-U and Sometimes Y, Smithsonian American Art Museum: Portrait of Mnonja, The Broad: painting supports and materials, Seattle Art Museum: acrylic, enamel, oil, and rhinestone works.
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