GLR January-February 2025

times fabricating backstories about their provenance and inflat ing their value, fooling few but convincing enough to prevent their sale, preserving them as a fascinating time capsule. Sleeper’s 1907 Arts and Crafts home, known as Beauport, in Gloucester, Massachusetts, stands as a monument to his unre quited feelings for the boy next door. Infatuated with Harvard professor A. Piatt Andrew, Sleeper acquired a harbor-front prop erty nearby. Alas, Sleeper was not Andrew’s type. This did not stop Sleeper from writing several times a week and smothering Andrew with gratitude for any look that came his way. Realiz Michael Quinn writes about books in a monthly column for the Brooklyn newspaper The Red Hook Star-Revue and on his website, mastermichaelquinn.com.

ing that “the novelty of his home ... held Andrew’s attention,” he never stopped working on it. The kooky additions by the in experienced architect Sleeper commissioned turned Beauport into an enchanting, larger-than-life cottage whose maze of themed rooms still retains its magical charm today. Evans, a professor of art history at Wheaton College, brings deep expertise to his subject. While his writing is sometimes overblown—“But what becomes of the profound joys and wicked disappointments, the thrill of ambition and the rage of loss, the triumphant pride and haunting shame that once roiled inside their walls?”—his passion is admirable. The book’s many photographs convey more historical information than at mosphere, supporting its role as a reference guide for serious study.

Visual Rhythms

K NOWN for her large-scale col lage portraits of Black women, the critically acclaimed artist Mickalene Thomas was born in Camden, New Jersey, in 1971. Introduced to art as a child by her mother, fashion model Sandra Bush, she earned her BFA from New York’s Pratt Institute and her MFA from the Yale School of Art. She has

Black women’s bodies and empowered Black female identity, redefining tradi tional notions of portraiture.” Arranged in thematic chapters, AllAbout Love takes the reader through all aspects of Mickalene Thomas’ extensive œuvre, repro ducing images spanning painting, collage, print, photography, video, and immersive in stallations. The book moves chronologically,

R EGINALD H ARRIS

MICKALENE THOMAS All About Love by Mickalene Thomas D.A.P. 224 pages, $60.

accepted various artist residences and received numerous prizes. She now lives and works in Brooklyn with her partner and fre quent model Racquel Chevremont. The influences and references in Thomas’ work range from the history of European portraiture and the collages of Romare Bearden and Henri Matisse to Black popular culture, “Blax ploitation” films, and the interior design style of the 1970s. Filled with vibrant colors, elaborate patterns and visual rhythms, and her signature rhinestone ornamentation, her work addresses issues of beauty, race, and the complexities of Black and female identity. Author and gay activist Darnell L. Moore writes: “She invites us to contemplate the reality that to be Black and a woman is to live queerly: to rebel against the status quo; to reimagine beyond the racialized heteronorm; to thrive and con jure new ways of being amid anti-Black racism and misogynoir; and to embody freedom despite every restriction they face.” Although her work can be found in museum collections around the world, Mickalene Thomas: All About Love is a cof fee table-sized catalog of her first major touring exhibition, its title referencing bell hooks’ classic 1999 text. In an interview with (unrelated) fellow artist Rachel Thomas, she explains: “My gaze is the gaze of a Black woman unapologetically lov ing other black women. ... Most of the theoretical inspiration for my work is rooted in self-discovery, celebration, joy, sen suality and the need to see positive images of Black women in the world.” Rachel Thomas adds that her interviewee shares with bell hooks the intention to challenge traditional represen tations of desire and love, “offering a fresh perspective on

starting with early depictions of female wrestlers locked in bat tle with an unmistakable erotic edge, followed by work using mir rors and video stills, and on to art history reconfigurations such

Reginald Harris is a poet and writer based in Brooklyn. 32

Mickalene Thomas. This is Where I Came In , 2006.

TheG & LR