Mickalene Thomas staged this photograph in the sculpture garden of New York’s Museum of Modern Art. It responds to one of the most famous images in Western art history: Edouard Manet’s 1863 Lunch on the Grass (Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe). In place of clothed white men picnicking with a nude white woman, Thomas’ image centers three black women, glamorously attired and with commanding confidence. “We all want to be validated and recognized in some way,” the artist asserts. “When I take a photograph, that gaze is forcing the viewer to see my subjects—to recognize them.”