Mickalene Thomas : All About Love

From December 17, 2025, to April 5, 2026, the Grand Palais dedicates a major retrospective to Afro-American artist Mickalene Thomas with the exhibition "Mickalene Thomas: All About Love." This solo exhibition covers more than twenty years of creation, blending painting, collage, photography, video, and installation to celebrate the beauty, resilience, and complexity of Black women. Inspired by bell hooks' foundational work, the exhibition places love at the heart of a reflection on liberation, self-affirmation, and collective joy, while reinventing the canons of art history.

Intimacy, Memory, and Movement Black is Beautiful The narrative of the "Mickalene Thomas: All About Love" exhibition at the Grand Palais is structured around a fluid storytelling that invites visitors to traverse spaces filled with emotion and memory. Upon entry, visitors dive into a world where love unfolds in all its forms: self-love, familial love, community love. The successive sections explore the representation of Black women in moments of intimacy and leisure, evoking the 1970s and the Black is Beautiful movement. Mickalene Thomas, A Moment's Pleasure #2, 2008, rhinestones, acrylic and enamel on wood panel Dedicated spaces for portraits stage powerful and confident muses, evolving in domestic settings rich in patterns. Other sections, such as "I Resist," confront racial violence and discrimination through works incorporating images from historical and contemporary protests. Pleasure becomes political, intimacy a refuge, and Black beauty a radical affirmation. Visitors then pass through tributes to Black female icons such as Eartha Kitt, Whoopi Goldberg, and Naomi Sims before arriving at sections devoted to Black goddesses and photography.

When Black Women Become the Heroines of Masterpieces Mickalene Thomas’ works strike by their boldness and brilliance. The artist forcefully reinterprets European masterpieces to place Black women at the center of the gaze. The Déjeuner sur l'herbe: The Three Black Women, permanently installed at MoMA, transposes Manet's composition into a contemporary picnic where sensuality and confidence prevail. Monumental canvases draw inspiration from Ingres’ Grande Odalisque or paintings by Courbet and Matisse, transforming traditionally passive figures into active subjects, masters of their own pleasure. The "Resist" series denounces oppression through powerful collages, such as Guernica Detail, which layers photographs from the Black Lives Matter movement with pictorial references. Mickalene Thomas, Clarivel Face Forward Gazing, 2024, rhinestones, acrylic and oil on canvas mounted on wood panel In this striking portrait, Mickalene Thomas depicts her muse Clarivel lying on a sofa covered with abundant patterns. The accumulation of geometric and floral fabrics evokes the 1970s domestic interiors of the artist’s mother and grandmother. The figure’s direct gaze, fixed on the viewer, asserts a sovereign presence that challenges conventions of female representation in Western art history.

When the Museum Space Transforms into a Lived-In Living Room The scenography of "Mickalene Thomas: All About Love" at the Grand Palais turns galleries into lively and enveloping spaces. Nicolas Groult and Valentina Dodi designed life-sized installations replicating the domestic interiors of the 1970s, those of the artist's mother and grandmother. Shimmering textiles, geometric patterned wallpapers, and archival materials recreate a warm, nostalgic atmosphere. ✨ Dibond plates combined with enamel, acrylic paint, and rhinestones give the works a three-dimensional depth that invites close viewing. The lighting highlights sparkling reflections, while the immersive volumes allow visitors to move around installations like in a lived-in living room. This arrangement reinforces the message: pleasure becomes political, intimacy a refuge, and Black beauty a radical affirmation. Mickalene Thomas, Sleep: Two Black Women, 2012, rhinestones, acrylic, oil and enamel on wood panel