Hair Portrait #20

Date2014

Label TextMickalene Thomas' Hair Portrait series taps the tradition of the celebrity portrait that Warhol popularized. Noting the exclusion of black women from portraiture in western art, Thomas turns her subject into a dazzling, glamorous icon. The artist understands hair styling as a unique form of expression and individuality for black women. In this work, a single portrait, which she found online, is repeated thirty times in different hues. Moving from light to dark, from visibility to near invisibility, the repetition of a single image—a practice Andy Warhol frequently deployed in his portraits—is given entirely new meaning.

Object number2015.9

ProvenanceThe artist; [Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York]; purchased from gallery by Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2015

Photo CreditPhoto: Lehmann Maupin Gallery

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Pop Departures, Oct. 9, 2014 - Jan. 11, 2015. No cat. no., pp. 39, 103, reproduced pp. 38, 90, 91. Columbus, Ohio, Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, Gray Matters, May 20 - July 30, 2017. No cat. no., pp. 34-35, reproduced. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Reverberations: Contemporary Art and Modern Classics, Dec. 22, 2022 - ongoing.

Credit LineGeneral Acquisition Fund

DimensionsOverall: 90 x 300 in. (228.6 x 762 cm) Each panel: 30 x 30 in. (76.2 x 76.2 cm)

MediumPlastic rhinestones and acrylic on panel (30 panels)