In a documentary titled All by Myself: The Eartha Kitt Story (1982), an interviewer asks the singer: “If a man came into your life, wouldn’t you want to compromise?” Kitt laughs rambunctiously at the inquiry, asserting that there is no compromise in love. “I fall in love with myself,” Kitt tells him. “I want someone to share me with me.” She was as much a muse to herself as she was to others, including New York-based artist Mickalene Thomas, who includes Kitt alongside several other black women in her show Mentors, Muses, and Celebrities at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.
It is impossible to ignore Kitt’s boisterous voice belting out “Angelitos Negros” (Little Black Angels), which is amplified throughout the entirety of the museum. In the opening of the song, she asks why there are never black angels depicted in paintings in church; throughout her lyrics she begs a fictional painter to “paint me some black angels now.” The camera zooms in and out, as tears fall down Kitt’s cheeks as the song progresses. It is a visceral performance because Kitt doesn’t only want to see black angels: she wants to see herself, she wants you to see her, too. Thomas’s “Angelitos Negros #1” (2016) displays Kitt’s performance on three 2-channel HD screens and prolongs it to a little over 23 minutes. In addition, and in tandem with the work, Thomas has included herself, along with three other performers in the video. They all fashion themselves like Kitt — a black turtleneck and a wig cropped just below the ears, flipped and curled — and imitate her movements as they lip-sync the lyrics. There are moments when Kitt, Thomas, and the other performers seem to be looking at you. On an adjacent wall, Thomas’s “Polaroid Series #10” (2016) includes snapshots of the performers from the video smiling, laughing, staring at the camera.