Beyond simple hero and villain stories, Picasso is a fact of life 50 years after his death. We all swim in a visual world he helped constitute.
Mickalene Thomas
For several years, the artist has taken on modern masters very directly — Picasso lately, and previously Matisse — with collage paintings that can involve sequins and sparkles.
![The artist’s reaction to Picasso’s painting has images and slogans dealing with the power and presence of Black women in the Black Lives Matter and civil rights movements.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2023/04/09/multimedia/09picasso-roundtable19-tzjg/09picasso-roundtable19-tzjg-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)
I’m fascinated with Picasso’s ability to create works about controversial sociopolitical issues, while also depicting abstracted portraits of seated or reclining women.
My first deep dive into his world began while I was a student at Pratt Institute and I encountered a reproduction of a painting by the Cuban modernist, Wifredo Lam, and soon learned that Picasso was both Lam’s friend and an inspiration. This gave me a kind of permission to do whatever I wanted with Picasso.
Around this time I was also delving into Matisse. My work has always been a simultaneous exploration of genres and the formal aspects of painting. I collage together various styles and images, adding certain nuances to each work.
In my most recent “Resist” series of paintings, I borrowed from Picasso’s wartime canvases with their mix of dead bodies and still lifes, specifically in my pieces The Charnel House (Resist #5) from 2021 and Pitcher and Skeleton (Resist #8) from 2022. For me, these works sharpen the meaning of one of my favorite James Baldwin quotes: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”