Something remarkable happens when O’Grady combines her own family portraits with ancient Egyptian imagery. Some of these juxtapositions are tender and intimate, with mood and gestures strikingly fusing family and family matters millennia apart. The work immediately became a favorite of our installation Extended Family and it merges the personal with the historic, relating beyond the Contemporary Galleries to the Museum’s world renowned collection of Egyptian Art.

Lorraine O’Grady (American, born 1934). Miscegenated Family Album, 1994. Silver dye bleach (Cibachrome) print, 32 prints each: 20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchased with funds given by Shelley and Philip E. Aarons, John and Barbara Vogelstein, and bequest of Richard J. Kempe, by exchange, 2008.80. © Lorraine O’Grady

Miscegenated Family Album consists of sixteen pairs of black-and-white and color portraits. Each framed pair juxtaposes images of members of the artist’s family, often her sister Devonia, with images mostly portraying the Egyptian queen Nefertiti and her family. The work grew out of O’Grady’s 1980 performance, Nefertiti/Devonia Evangeline, which took place in front of a larger series of projected images of a similar kind. Devonia died unexpectedly at the age of thirty-seven before the sisters had time to reconcile their troubled relationship. The performance was a way for the artist to mourn her dead sister, her only sibling, and work through their fraught and complex bond.

The use of Egyptian imagery came naturally to O’Grady who found a physical resemblance between her sister and the Egyptian family imagery she chose. In the same way, she found similarities in the family histories. Nefertiti’s sister Mutnedjmet plays an important role in many of the pictures and the Egyptian queen disappeared from public life at an age close to Devonia’s at the time of her death. Egyptian art from this period around 1340 BC is known for its realistic and informal depictions of family life and its intimate portrayal of affection between family members. (The Brooklyn Museum has a wonderful collection of portrait reliefs from this period, including the piece called A Mother’s Kiss, which O’Grady used for her work—see below.)

Relief of Queen Nefertiti Kissing One of Her Daughters, ca. 1352-1336 B.C.E. Limestone, painted, 8 3/4 x 1 5/16 x 17 1/2 in. (22.2 x 3.4 x 44.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 60.197.8.

At the same time as the subject matter is deeply personal, through it O’Grady also addresses issues of class, racism, ethnography and African American art. The piece is also a commentary on hybridity. Born in Boston in 1934 to West Indian parents, O’Grady always approaches biculturalism in her art and acknowledges the importance of the diaspora experience for her life and work: the need to reconcile conflicting values and different backgrounds, and, as O’Grady writes, the necessity “to build a bridge to some other place.”

Miscegenated Family Album will remain on view until September 5.

Mickalene Thomas (American, born 1971). A Little Taste Outside of Love, 2007. Acrylic, enamel and rhinestones on wood panel, Overall: 108 x 144 in. (274.3 x 365.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Giulia Borghese and Designated Purchase Fund, 2008.7a-c. © Mickalene Thomas

It’s also a smart tongue-in-cheek riff on the familiar tradition of depicting the nude—woman of course—in the history of western art. In this work, Thomas explores the idea of self-representation. By making an African American woman the subject of the painting she recasts traditional depictions in European paintings of black women as maids and servants.  (If you are familiar with art history, think about Edouard Manet’s Olympia, which shows a pale courtesan reclining on white sheets with a maid of African descent offering a bouquet of flowers from an admirer.) In A Little Taste Thomas also tweaks European taste for “oriental” themes by removing the nude female body from the sexualized space of the harem and inserting it into an interior that makes reference to taste of the 1970s—the decade in which the artist was born.

You can see the influence of the 70s and the black power movement in the luxuriantly patterned textiles and the woman’s Afro hairdo.  Informing Thomas’s painting are her mother’s photographs from the 70s,  Blaxploitation movies, and images of iconic black women.  I like the interior setting which has a big personality.  The patchwork of swatches rendered in gaudy and sometimes clashing patterns suggests a room that is filled with spacial ambiguities. All of the sparkling multicolored rhinestones applied to the surface heighten the decorative qualities of the piece, pushing the glitz factor beyond conventional good taste. Here, Thomas has forged an innovative pictorial language that draws on tradition to create something new and very contemporary. I’m proud that she’s a Brooklyn artist!!!

Yakama (Native American). Woman’s Beaded Dress, late 19th century. Buckskin, glass beads, metal coins, 46 x 45 1/2 in. (116.8 x 115.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Collection Fund, 46.181. Creative Commons-BY-NC

You can see the care in which it is made and the artist’s attention to detail by looking closely at her choice of beads. Each bead is chosen for its specific color in the design, and then sewn on – not an easy task pushing the needle through hide. The Yacama woman’s choice of danglers to use on the bodice makes me think about my own collecting habits. Perhaps the Chinese coins were treasured heirlooms. Or perhaps the pieces came from other dresses now worn out or given to her from a family member.

We know that this Yakama dress was part of the collection of designer Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) and exhibited in a special Native American gallery in Tiffany’s Long Island home, Laurelton Hall. He was an avid collector of Native American art and traveled to the Northwest area in 1910, 1911 and again in 1916 where he collected many Native American objects including baskets (also in the Museum’s collection) and this Yakama Dress. The dress came to the Museum in 1946 when the contents of Laurelton Hall came up for auction.

Today, the Yakama Nation with around 10,000 members is located on the Columbia Plateau in Washington State near the Columbia River. The women are still famous for their containers and headgear made in a traditional basketry style and their fine beadwork on clothing and horse gear.

Fukami Sueharu (Japanese, born 1947). Infinity II (Shinso), 1994. Porcelain with blue-green (seihakuji) glaze, 6 x 47 5/8 x 9 1/2 in. (17.0 x 123.0 x 26.0 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchased with funds given by Alastair B. Martin, 1994.146a-b. © artist or artist’s estate. This image is presented as a “thumbnail” because it is protected by copyright. The Brooklyn Museum respects the rights of artists who retain the copyright to their work.

you can see subtle gradations of color, from an intense turquoise to almost white: the firing process caused the thin layer of glaze to liquefy and pool up in indentations while it ran away from the edges.  These gradations help accentuate the shape of the sculpture.  Its title invites us to get lost in it, to dive in and swim around in the blue as if it were some sort of limitless expanse of ether.  But call me a cynic: when I look at this object I get a little bit bored with the smooth curve and infinite blue of the front surface.  When I look at this object I like to stand at either end and spend some time running my gaze down the edges, which is basically the opposite of blissing out.

I don’t know why we don’t have photos that offer side views of this piece; I guess you’re just going to have to come see it for yourself.  From the front, it looks like a concave triangle, like an old car logo (maybe Cadillac?) but from the sides you can see that the points are formed by a collection of crazy, waving contours and on one end they’re extended beyond their natural meeting point, almost stretched, so they look like they’re reaching out toward you.  It’s graceful, but it’s also kind of aggressive and threatening.  And the porcelain is so fine-grained that the artist has been able to create very, very sharp edges.  It’s cloud as weapon; it’s a ray with razor-sharp fins.

Fukami Sueharu lives in Kyoto, Japan’s most traditional city.  The high-grade porcelain he uses is usually reserved for dainty tea cups.  He learned how to work with porcelain from his father, who was a maker of very refined table wares.  The blue-green glaze that he uses is based on a Chinese formula from the Sung dynasty (960-1279), again something he learned about from the family business.  Fukami looked at these traditional materials and saw new potential.  He creates forms that look like the most perfect iceberg or like a sliver of sky glimpsed through a skylight, but almost everything he makes has some sort of spiky or blade-like edge, and in my opinion, that’s where his work gets interesting.

Pair Statue of Nebsen and Nebet-ta, ca. 1400-1352 B.C.E. Limestone, painted, 15 3/4 x 8 9/16 x 9 1/4 in. (40 x 21.8 x 23.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 40.523.

Nebsen and his wife, Nebet-ta, lived at the end of the 15^th century B.C.E., but this statue on view in the museum, was commissioned by their son, Weserhat, only after they died. Like today, fashions changed in ancient Egypt, and since Weserhat lived during the reign of Amunhotep III (circa 1390-1352 B.C.E.), he ordered the sculpture to be carved in the style of the day. Just compare the large almond-shaped eyes, curved eyebrows, broad noses and full sensuous lips of Nebsen and Nebet-ta with Amun-Re or Amunhotep III.

Amun-Re or King Amunhotep III, 1403-1365 B.C.E. Quartzite, 7 11/16 x 5 5/8 x 3 15/16 in. (19.5 x 14.3 x 10 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 76.39.

Have you ever noticed that ancient Egyptian statues all look like the ruling pharaoh? Most likely, Nebsen and Nebet-ta did not actually resemble the king, but the artists were not striving to make portraits. By adopting the ruler’s features the artist associated the persons he was depicting with the king. This way, they could magically receive protection and reward in the afterlife, just like their king.

The inscriptions on the back of the object identify the owners by name. They also tell us that Nebsen was a scribe in the royal treasury, and Nebet-ta was a singer in the temple of Isis. The texts on this statue also describe the food and drink offerings for the ka-spirits of Nebsen and Nebet-ta.  The inscription here wishes that Nebsen have “a fine memorial in his town, and that his ka-spirit be nourished daily…” The ancient Egyptians believed that one’s ka-spirit, created at the time of birth, continued to exist in this world after the person died. This is why sculptures like this, known as ka-statues, were created. They were placed in tombs or temples, and were thought to serve as a home for the ka-spirit, a place where it could receive offerings from the living family and the gods.

Nebsen’s offering formula appeals to the god Amun, One Enduring of Everything. Nebet-ta’s text connects this statue with the Brooklyn Museum because it summons Mut, the Lady of Isheru, whose temple precinct at Karnak is being excavated by the Brooklyn Museum expedition.