Image: Mickalene Thomas, Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Woman, 2012; courtesy Mickalene Thomas Studios.

‍Screening: Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Woman, 2012. 24 minutes. Digital presentation.

‍Introduction and post-screening Q & A with Mickalene Thomas

‍In the spirit of Mother’s Day we present Mickalene Thomas’s directorial debut, Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Woman (2012, 24 min.) In this short documentary Thomas celebrates her mother Sandra Bush, her long-time muse. Often depicted in her paintings as a rhinestone-clad & willowy, the film reveals another side of this beautiful woman through stories of her personal and physical struggles, including kidney disease.

As Thomas explains, “One of the reasons I used my mother is because of her charisma, her beauty...and I thought about how I wasn’t [using her] because she was sick, and how a different type of beauty, a different type of aging, a different type of portraiture could come across on film.”

‍Free with museum admission. Seating is limited; please RSVP here.