Justice
Mickalene Thomas, Guernica (Resist #3), 2021, rhinestones, acrylic, and oil on canvas mounted on wood panel, 83 x 108 x 2 1/8 in. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2022.8. © Mickalene Thomas / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Mickalene Thomas
Guernica (Resist #3)
- What do you think the artist is trying to communicate with this artwork? What details or symbols support this message?
- What does this artwork teach us about the past? How does it teach us about the future?
Mickalene Thomas’s work layers imagery from the civil rights and Black Lives Matter movements alongside motifs like an impaled horse, an anguish woman, and the watchful eye of God from Pablo Picasso’s Guernica (1937). In this way, Thomas creates a parallel between histories of violence and injustice across time and place, providing equal weight to the ongoing violence against Black peoples worldwide and the Spanish Civil War.
- How does Black American history differ from the "traditional" story of American history? Why is it important to learn about Black history?
- Do you think the limitations of people’s civil rights continue in today’s America? How so?
- How is racial justice related to human rights? What does it mean for Mickalene Thomas to compare the oppression and discrimination of Black Americans with the Spanish Civil War?
Content Contributors
Exhibition sponsored by Kenneth C. Griffin
Learning and engagement programming for
We the People: The Radical Notion of Democracy is sponsored by:
Sarah and Ross Perot, Jr. Foundation | Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates, & Woodyard, P.L.L.C. | Johnny and Jeanie Morris, Bass Pro Shops | Alturas Foundation | Harriet and Warren Stephens, Stephens Inc. | Sotheby’s | Bob and Becky Alexander | Marybeth and Micky Mayfield | Lamar and Shari Steiger | Jeff and Sarah Teague / Citizens Bank | Arkansas Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities | Avis and Bill Bailey | Scarlett and Neff Basore | June Carter Family | Terri and Chuck Erwin | Jackye and Curtis Finch | The Harrison and Rhonda French Family | Jim and Susan von Gremp | Laurice Hachem | Shannon and Charles Holley | Valorie and Randy Lawson / Lawco Energy Group | Donna and Mack McLarty | Steve and Susan Nelson | Neal and Gina Pendergraft | Helen Porter | JT and Imelda Rose | Lee and Linda Scott | Stella Boyle Smith Trust, Catherine and Michael Mayton, Trustees | William Reese Company
