Mickalene ThomasAmerican, 1971Madame Mama Bush
Can I see it?
Yes, on view now
Where is “Madame Mama Bush” now? Minneapolis Institute of Art, G365, Minneapolis. Yes, on view now. Checked September 29, 2026.
Minneapolis, United States
Closed· opens Tue at 10:00 AM
On public display.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the work
This large format photograph depicts the artist Mickalene Thomas’s mother, Sandra, at the artist’s studio. Deftly instrumentalizing iconographic tropes—figurations of the muse and of the odalisque—she presents a fundamental shift in the visualization of black female bodies and their power. Sandra’s gleaming breast, her vivid robe, the sensuous curve of her legs as they drape across the flowered and animal-patterned draperies of her couch, and above all her profile, turned to the ceiling in rapturous repose, claim the space within the frame as hers alone.
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Details
- Accession number
- 2019.101
In the catalog
Sources
- Minneapolis Institute of Art
- Image: Minneapolis Institute of Art — © Mickalene Thomas / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
