An untitled 1968 study by Thomas is featured in the exhibition. She originally attended Howard to pursue a degree in costume design. To further explore the life and practice of Alma Thomas, consider “Alma W. Thomas: A Retrospective of the Paintings,” published to coincide with a traveling exhibition organized by the Fort Wayne Museum of Art (1998-2000). There are six patterns in there right now that I can see. ALMA THOMAS, “Iris, Tulips, Jonquils, and Crocuses,” 1969 (acrylic on canvas). The works have changed in many ways, but they are still all little dabs of paint that spread out very free. How many weddings have been held at the White House? The beauty of the natural world inspired the practice of Thomas and motivated her transition from representation to abstraction. That same year, her retrospective opened at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and Washington, D.C. Mayor Walton Washington designated the opening as “Alma Thomas Day.”13. In “Alma Thomas” the catalog that coincided with the 2016 exhibition at the Tang Teaching Museum and the Studio Museum in Harlem, Nikki A. Greene of Wellesley College noted the artist’s emphasis on the positive. "Creative art is for all time and is therefore independent of time. Bourgeois Bennett is seeking experienced audit personnel for our New Orleans office. “In her art, Thomas pointedly rejected painting about struggle and crisis. I've been here for at least three or four generations. Alice Neel: If art is the expression of experience and everyone admits that gender and race affect experience, then it … Alma Woodsey Thomas was born in Columbus, Georgia, on September 22, 1891. And every morning since then, the wind has given me new colors through the window panes.” I thought to myself, That must be accomplished. Beyond the Spectrum. This is the 36th ornamentin the series... James Archer AbbottJames Archer Abbott currently serves as the Executive Director of the Lewes Historical Society in Lewes, Delaware. Smaller squares of color leap out from the white background. A... Jim AdamsJim Adams has been gardening in Washington, D.C., for over 25 years. To help sustain it, make a one-time donation or sign up for a recurring monthly contribution. Just two of them are African American—Barbara Chase Riboud and Alma Thomas (1891-1978). I thought myself superior and kept on going. Guerrilla Girls is an anonymous group of feminist, female artists devoted to fighting sexism and racism within the art world. Light reveals to us the spirit and living soul of the world through colors.\"Press Release, Columbus Museum of Arts and Sciences, 1982, for an exhibition entitled A Life in Art: Alma Thomas 18911978, Vertical File, Library, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. A world without color would seem dead. Many Thanks for Your Support. There are six patterns in there right now that I can see. You know how reserved the black community here was in the old days, how it admired successful black people. “Do you think of yourself as a black artist?” art critic and writer Eleanor Munro asked 86-year-old Alma Woodsey Thomas in an interview conducted in the artist’s home in 1978, two months before her passing. Her Earth paintings, however, are among her most celebrated. Many Thanks for Your Support. | The Phillips Collection, Washington DC, Gift of Franz Bader, 1976; Courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem, This work was on view in “Alma Thomas: 13 Studies for Paintings” (2014) at Hemphill Fine Arts in Washington, D.C.: ALMA THOMAS, “Untitled (Study for Breeze Rustling through Fall Flowers),” c. 1968 (acrylic on paper). But I always thought the reason was ignorance. There are six patterns in there right now that I can see. Sam Gilliam and Benjamin Forgey have reviewed the transcript and have made corrections and emendations. An essential resource focused on visual art from a Black perspective, Culture Type explores the intersection of art, history, and culture, Alma Thomas, “Untitled,” circa 1968. To learn more about Alma Thomas, visit her fully digitized papers on the Archives of American Art website. There would be peace in the world.14, This article was originally published MLK Day: From Los Angeles to New York, Art Museums are Celebrating the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. April Exhibitions: Mark Bradford Pays Homage to Clyfford Still, Plus 'Black Radical Women,' Radcliffe Bailey, Deana Lawson, Nari Ward, Terry Adkins, and More, 'One of the Most Influential Artists Anywhere': Kerry James Marshall Makes 'Time' 100 List, National Gallery of Art Acquires Howardena Pindell’s Seminal Video ‘Free, White and 21’, Culture Talk: Director Sam Pollard on His New HBO Documentary ‘Black Art: In the Absence of Light’, Painter Jordan Casteel, Who Portrays Her Subjects with Illuminating Detail, is Now Represented by Massimo de Carlo Gallery, The Week in Black Art, Feb. 8-14, 2021: Alexis Johnson Takes Senior Role at Paula Cooper Gallery, Cummer Museum Appoints 4 Black Board Members, April Bey Now Repped by Gavlak Gallery, New Florida Home of Tennis Phenom Serena Williams Has Art Gallery Featuring Works by Radcliffe Bailey and Leonardo Drew, “Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction”, “Alma W. Thomas: A Retrospective of the Paintings,”, “A Life in Art: Alma W. Thomas, 1891-1978,”, Ernie Barnes Retrospective Brings Renewed Attention to African American Artist Who Found Fame After Playing Pro Football, Culture Talk: Director Sam Pollard on His New HBO Documentary 'Black Art: In the Absence of Light', Beginning in Late 1950s, African American Painters Known as 'Highwaymen' Captured Florida's Natural Landscapes, On the Rise: 47 Curators and Arts Leaders Who Took on New Appointments in 2019, What to Look Forward to in 2021: More Than 30 Exhibitions, Books, and Events Focused on African American Art. ... Mark Rothko, Ed Ruscha, and Alma Thomas, among others. An earlier catalog, “A Life in Art: Alma W. Thomas, 1891-1978,” accompanied a Smithsonian exhibition (1981–1982). Thomas said she sat in a red chair in her living room and looked out the window and saw the colors and patterns that were the genesis for her expressive approach to abstraction. The beauty of the natural world inspired the practice of Thomas and motivated her transition from representation to abstraction. And that's how it all began. Dabs of paint in a spectrum of colors arranged in a succession of linear rhythms, the work was acquired by the museum in 2015. Alma had studied with Jacob Kainen. Alma Thomas’s abstractions were made during the civil rights movement in the United States, with protests and riots in her city to end legalized racial discrimination. Different from anything I'd ever seen. “Why, the tree! A NEW EXHIBITION at the Museum of Modern Art in New York is dedicated to works by women artists created between the end of World War II in 1945 and the onset of the Feminist Movement in the late 1960s. Alma Thomas didn’t start out as a full-time painter. The works have changed in many ways, but they are still all little dabs of paint that spread out.”, “I looked at the tree in the window, and that became my inspiration. BOOKSHELF It was officially added to the White House Collection in 2014 by the White House Historical Association through the George B. Hartzog, Jr. White House Acquisition Trust. Culture Type is an independent art history project that requires countless hours and expense to research, report, write, and produce. Composed of several sheets of paper held together with pressure-sensitive tape and staples, the study is a preparatory work demonstrating how Thomas thoughtfully considered the structure and composition of her canvases. Although Thomas is recognized as the first African-American woman to have her artwork featured in the White House, it is also important to understand how Thomas viewed her own artistic identity. Alma Thomas died in February last year at the age of 86.Hors concours in many ways, she did not find herself as a painter until the decade of the '60s, when she was in her seventies. Source: Interview in the Art Gallery [April 1970] I was proud of them and still am. It only takes a minute. During their residence in the Executive Mansion, the Obamas oversaw the 2015 refurbishing of the dining room, incorporating modern art and design into the room. The group formed in New York City in 1985 with the mission of bringing gender and racial inequality into focus within the greater arts community. Through color I have sought to concentrate on beauty and happiness, rather than on man's inhumanity to man. …Bourgeois Bennett offers excellent benefits including flexible work hours, generous vacation time, performance bonuses, professional development training, no significant travel, paid medical plans… The White House Historical Association and the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project Alma Thomas, Tiptoe Through the Tulips, 1969, acrylic on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Gift of Vincent Melzac), 2015.19.145 I am captivated by Thomas’s visual poetry—her colorful brushwork joyfully dances across the canvas with a rhythm that lifts my heart. In an interview toward the end of her life, she was asked if she thought of herself as a Black artist. ALMA THOMAS, “Breeze Rustling Through Fall Flowers,” 1968 (acrylic on canvas). Alma Thomas passed away on February 24, 1978, but her influence has continued to grow. Making Connections in the President's Neighborhood, Pulling Back the Curtain on the Executive Mansion, Lina Mann But for educated young black people there were so many expectations then, so many pressures to conform. For a time, she feared she would be unable to continue painting.11 Despite this setback, Thomas persisted and started creating her signature colorful paintings in 1966 after she was offered a retrospective of her art at Howard University. Alma Thomas: “Quality” has always been used to keep women and artists of color out. Resurrection by Alma Thomas hangs on the north wall. Well, my family succeeded in Georgia, right in the heart of the South, and they did better than most after we came to Washington. Please consider supporting its ongoing production by making a donation. While she had a lifelong affinity and appreciation for art, Thomas did not begin painting professionally until she reached her seventies. Please consider supporting its ongoing production by making a donation. The current exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated color catalogue featuring a newly transcribed and previously unpublished oral history interview with the artist. | Gift of Vincent Melzac, 1976.6.1. She was fascinated with space and pursued the passion in many of her works. Protest at the People's House. The painting was unveiled as part of the White House Collection during Black History Month 2015 and is the first in this collection by an African-American woman. Different from anything I’d ever seen.”. Benjamin Forgey. If everybody were cultured we would have no wars or disturbance. The yellow pattern along the edges appears to begin outside of the painting. A study for one of her Earth paintings, the image replicates an aerial view of densely planted rows in a colorful flower garden. Summary: An interview with Guerrilla Girls using the names Jane Bowles and Alma Thomas, conducted 2008 May 8, by Judith Olch Richards, for the Archives of American Art, at an undisclosed location, in … From there she ventured in many directions. “Her goal was to create brief respites from many of the difficulties suffered by those who lived in her segregated neighborhood; she attempted to teach her viewers to find the wonder of nature in their own front yards.”, “Thomas pointedly rejected painting about struggle and crisis. She believe instead that the beauty she generated offset the world’s horrors and inhumanities.” — Nikki A. Greene, Given this, environmental threats and the hazards of climate change might further encourage Thomas. Culture Type® is also an affiliate of Bookshop.org, whose mission is to financially support local, independent bookstores. Historian. | Collection of halley k harrisburg and Michael Rosenfeld, NY; Courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem Collection of National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Courtesy NGA. Although Thomas is recognized as the first African-American woman to have her artwork featured in the White House, it is also important to understand how Thomas viewed her own artistic identity. Receive newsletter and notification of new posts via email. What are some interesting facts about presidents and first ladies? ALMA THOMAS, “Cherry Blossom Symphony,” 1973 (acrylic on canvas). Culture Type earns a nominal commission when you access Bookshop via a link on this website and/or make a purchase from one of Culture Type's book lists on Bookshop. In his 1989 oral history interview with the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art, he revealed one of the perks of visiting Thomas: “I knew Alma, because if there was anybody doing anything, Alma would call you and would talk to you. I am a painter. Rather, Thomas developed a relatively flexible style by the mid-1960s, in which she owed no debts to her influences. Abstracting her natural surroundings—from the plantings in her own yard to the vast displays at the nearby U.S. National Arboretum—Thomas painted flower beds and gardens, horticultural landscapes as if they were being viewed from an aerial perspective. I don't know why I never lost this need to create something original, something all my own.10. With a practice intensely focused Earth, space, and nature, one wonders how the encroaching affects of climate change might influence Thomas’s vision. I am a painter. She responded: No, I do not. | MoMA. — Alma Thomas. Painting from her living room, she observed patterns represented in light and nature outside her window and organized changing light and smaller patterns into her paintings: I decided to try to paint something different from anything I'd ever done. The collection of fine art at the White House has evolved and grown over time. The “stunning painting” in question is Resurrection, a brightly colored impressionist piece featuring a concentric circle pattern.2 As Mrs. Obama noted, the painting’s addition to the White House Collection made Alma Thomas the first African-American woman to have her work displayed in the President’s House. After welcoming her guests, Mrs. Obama delivered remarks about the space, including the addition of twentieth-century abstract artwork by diverse artists: As many of you know, the President and I, we are true art lovers. In 1938, she organized the first art gallery in the D.C. public school system. © 2013-2021 Culture Type, LLC. Culture is sensitivity to beauty. Congratulations and keep it coming! When I came to Washington, that was segregated. His D.C. career began at the... What is it like to live at the White House? She considered 1972 the peak of her career, presenting her artwork at New York’s Whitney Museum in a solo show. It is painted on a square canvas, composed of concentric circles of color. The collection began with mostly... For two hundred years, Decatur House has stood as a near neighbor to the White House across Lafayette Square. SUPPORT CULTURE TYPE Alma Thomas quote: The use of color in my paintings is of paramount importance to me. Do you enjoy and value Culture Type? First, she was a schoolteacher in Washington D.C., where her career spanned 38 years. This photograph of the Family Dining Room was taken by Matthew D'Agostino in 2016, during the Barack Obama administration. The gallery featured artists including Edward Mitchell Bannister, Bernice Cross, and Henry Ossawa Tanner.6, During the 1950s, Thomas returned to her art studies, working with artist Jacob Kainen at American University where she became interested in abstraction and developed an emphasis on color. In 1921, … 'Waltons' Star Richard Thomas Opens up about Late TV Dad Ralph Waite in a Candid Interview