from an exhibition of the work of Alma  W. Thomas, 1891-1978, American, at the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC in 2021 and 2022

 

 

Alma Thomas was born in Columbus, GA; and lived her adult life in Washington, DC. 

 

She was the first Fine Arts graduate at Howard University, Washington, DC, in 1924. 

 

She was also the first African American to have had an exhibition at the Whitney Museum of (North) American Art in 1972;  and this after protests about the consistent exclusion of minority artists.

 

 

 

Portrait of Alma Thomas, 1968, gelatin silver prints. 

Ida Jervis, 1917-2014, Polish-American.  Loan by the Columbus Museum to the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC in 2021/22

 

 

 

 

Grandfather’s House, 1952, oil on canvas.

Alma Thomas, 1891-1968, American.  Columbus Museum loan to the Phillips Collection in 2021/22

 

Alma Thomas’ grandfather, William Cantey, the son of a white property owner, was born into slavery. 

After his father’s death, Cantey and his wife took over a plantation in Alabama owned by his white half-brother.  He accrued relative wealth there running the plantation and working as a vet. 

Alma Thomas left the Deep South for Washington, DC when she was 16.  But she retained the fondest memories of her grandfather’s farm and its animals.

 

 

 

She started with figurative work.  She said this did not interest her and she moved to abstraction in the mid-1950s. 

 

 

 

Study of a Young Woman, c. 1955, oil on fiberboard. 

Alma Thompson, 1891-1978, American.  Private collection loan to the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC

 

 

 

Her credo was beauty and happiness and she used colour to express both.

 

 

 

 

Untitled (Wooded Landscape), 1952, oil on canvas. 

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, American.  David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland loan to the Phillips Collection in 2021/22

 

 

 

 

 

Blue and Brown Still Life, 1958, oil on fiberboard. 

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, American.  Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum loan to the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC in 2021/22

 

 

 

 

 

Macy’s Parade, 1960, watercolour on paper. 

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978.  Private collection loan to the Phillilps Collection, Washington, DC in 2021/22

 

 

 

 

 

Reflections, 1960, oil on canvas. 

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, American.  Private collection loan to the Phillips Collection, Washington DC in 2021/22

 

 

 

 

 

Saint Cecilia at the Organ (Etude in Brown), 1962, oil on linen.

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, American.  Private collection loan to the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC

 

 

 

 

Sketch for March on Washington, c. 1963, acrylic on canvasboard. 

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978.  Columbus Museum loan to the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC in 2021/22

 

 

 

Alma Thomas did not usually engage in direct political action.  Her work did not usually address political or social issues.

But she did join the March on Washington. 

 

Very active in her community, she taught art, became a mentor to many; and involved herself also in the theater.  A costume designer, her master thesis  was about marionettes.  In later life, she collaborated with her students on theatrical productions.

 

 

 

Untitled, 1965, watercolour on paper. 

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, American.  Private collection on loan to the Phillips Collection, Washington DC in 2021/22

 

 

 

 

Trip through the Alps, 1965, oil on canvas. 

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, American.  The African-American Museum, Philadelphia loan to the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC in 2021/22

 

 

 

She studied colour theory and was particulary taken with the colour codification of the Bauhaus colour theoretician and artist, Joahnnes Itten (1888-1967, Swiss).

 

 

 

 

Breeze Rustling Through Fall Flowers, 1968, acrylic on canvas. 

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, American. ?Location

 

 

 

 

 

Visitors to the exhibition, Phillips Collection, 2021

 

 

 

From the mid-1950s, Alma Thomas began to experiment with abstraction.  Ten years later she evolved to the use of broken brushwork (‘Alma’s stripes’): colourful patterns made by daubing paint.

 

 

Within the overall equilibrium and beauty of each of her paintings, there are shifts of colour, shade,

shape, size, direction of painted and unpainted spaces

to represent the journey of artist, and perhaps viewer, into and around an experience in the world or an imagined experience of other worlds.

 

 

 

It is this which identified her work as belonging to the movement called ‘Colour Field’

and it is this work for which she is widely known today.

 

 

 

 

 

Pansies in Washington, DC, 1969, acrylic on canvas. 

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, American.  Corcoran Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC loan to the Phillips Collection in 2021/22

 

 

 

With Colour Field, colour becomes the singular subject of the painting and artists used several kinds of bounded forms – stripes, geometric shapes, simplified naturalistic forms, flat bold areas of the canvas – to draw attention to colours and their interactions.  

 

 

 

 

Snoopy sees a Sunrise, 1970, acrylic on canvas.

  Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, American.  Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum loan the Phillips Collection in 2021/22

 

Snoopy was the circumlunar module spacecraft from Apollo 10 which skimmed over the lunar surface where Apollo 11 was planned to land.

 

 

 

She was one of six artists grouped in the 1960’s in what came to be called the Washington Color School. Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland were two of the six.

 

 

 

 

Burnt Day, 1962, acrylic resin (Magna) on canvas. 

Kenneth Noland, 1924-2010, American.  Private collection on loan to the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC in 2021/22

 

 

 

 

 

Blast Off, 1970. acrylic on canvas. 

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, American.  Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, DC

 

 

 

 

Evening Glow, 1972, acrylic on canvas. 

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, American. The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection on display at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 2020

 

 

 

Alma Thomas’ place among Colour Field artists was important not only for the innovation of her work but also for the fact that this was one of the movements which came to expand the methods and shift the focus of Abstract Expressionism,

And, in stages, to overthrow the hegemony of the Abstract Expressionists, a grouping whose ethos was hostile both to women and to minorities.

And for pointing, even if only briefly in the long run of history, away from New York.

 

 

 

 

Cherry Blossom Symphony, 1972, acrylic on canvas. 

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, American.  Private collection loan to the Phillips Collection in 2021/22

 

 

 

 

 

Exhibition gallery at the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC in 2021

 

 

 

 

 

Cumulus, 1972, acrylic on canvas. 

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, American.  San Francisco Museum of Modern Art loan to the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC in 2021/22

 

 

 

 

 

Starry Night and the Astronauts, 1972, acrylic on canvas.

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, American.  The Art Institute of Chicago loan to the Phillips Collection in 2021/22

 

 

 

 

 

Exhibition gallery, Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, 2021

 

 

 

 

Forsythia Among Spring Flowers, 1972, acrylic on canvas.

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, American.  Howard University Gallery of Art loan to the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC in 2021/22

 

 

 

 

Arboretum Presents White Dogwood, acrylic on canvas. 

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, American.  Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, DC loan to the Phillips Collection, Washington DC in 2021/22

 

 

 

 

Wind Sparkling Dew and Green Grass, 1973, acrylic on canvas. 

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978.  Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana loan to the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC in 2021/22

 

 

 

 

Wind and Crepe Myrtle Concerto, 1973, acrylic on canvas. 

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, American.  Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, DC loan to the Phillips Collection in 2021/22

 

 

 

Red Atmosphere, 1973, acrylic on canvas. 

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, American.  Tougaloo College Art Collection, Mississippi loan to the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC in 2021/22

 

 

 

 

Despite Alma Thomas’ success, it has taken – to all intents and purposes –  the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 in Minneapolis to concentrate the mind of the North American art establishment on the lack of diversity among art curated, exhibited, collected, bought and sold. 

 

A little more than forty years after Alma Thomas died.

 

 

 

 

The Orangery, 1973, acrylic on canvas. 

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, American.  The Newark (NJ) Museum of Art loan to the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC in 2021/22

 

 

 

 

Fiery Sunset, 1973, acrylic on canvas.  

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, American.  MOMA, NY loan to the Phillips Collection in 2021/22

 

 

 

 

Red Abstraction, 1975, watercolour (the gallery reflected).

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978.  Donald C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland loan to the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC in 2021/22

 

 

 

 

Hydrangeas Spring Song, 1976, acrylic on canvas. 

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, American.  Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

 

 

 

Ruth Kainen’s Amaryllis, 1976, acrylic on canvas. 

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, American. Loan from the Phillips Academy, Andover to the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC in 2021/22

 

 

 

 

 

Falling Leaves, Love Wind Orchestra, 1977, acrylic on canvas. 

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, American.  Originally a gift to the artist David Driskell. Loaned from a private collection to the Phillips Collection in 2021/22.

 

 

 

 

 

Red Azalea Singing and Dancing Rock and Roll Music, 1976, acrylic on canvas. 

Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, American.  Smithsonian Museum of American Art loan to the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC in 2021/22

 

 

 

Alma Thomas said: 

 

“Man’s highest inspirations come from nature.  A world without colour would seem dead.  Colour is life.  Light is the mother of colour.  Light reveals to us the spirit and living soul of the world through colours.”