Abstract painter Alma Woodsey Thomas (1891-1978) devoted her life to the youth of Washington and other local communities, both as a teacher and as an organizer of cultural events. In 1907 the family moved to the Logan Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., relocating due to racial violence in Georgia and the public school system of Washington. © artist or artist’s estate via Whitney Museum, FIVE DECADES LATER, when the Whitney Museum opened in a brand new Renzo Piano-designed building in Meatpacking District, the museum presented a new installation of its collection, describing it as “an opportunity to reexamine the history of art in the United States from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present.” The 2015 exhibition inaugurated the space. Her work has often been associated with the Washington Color School, given that she spent her adult life in Washington, D.C. and that she worked alongside Color Field painters such as Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Gene Davis and Sam Gilliam. ALMA THOMAS, “Snoopy Sees Earth Wrapped in Sunset,” 1970 (acrylic on canvas, 47 7/8 x 47 7/8 inches / 121.6 x 121.6 cm). By the time Apollo landed on the moon, she was in her late 70s. Now that's changing, most vividly with a solo show at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, in New York. Auctions An Alma Thomas Painting That Is Set to Break Records at Christie’s Was Previously Owned by Bill Cosby. Further, Thomas attended classes at various other schools, including almost a decade of painting classes at American University in DC. 17th Annual Photo Contest Finalists Announced. In. I’ve used this technique many times in a few different paintings (Van Gogh Starry Night, Byzantine Mosaics) and I love it more every time I do it. Alma Thomas: Painting a Rainbow | Deep Space Sparkle. Curator Lauren Haynes contributed an essay to the volume about Thomas’s Space paintings. ALMA THOMAS, “Mars Dust,” 1972 (acrylic on canvas). Thomas is regarded as a key figure of the Washington Color Field School of paintings, thanks to her BORN IN COLUMBUS, GA., Thomas lived and worked in Washington, D.C. For 35 years, she was a public school teacher at Shaw Junior High. An active artist most of her life, when Thomas retired in 1960, she was finally able to devote herself to her practice full time. Today not only can our great scientists send astronauts to and from the moon to photograph its surface and bring back samples of rocks and other materials, but through the medium of color television all can actually see and experience the thrill of these adventures,” Thomas said in a 1972 artist statement, which is printed in the exhibition catalog “Alma Thomas.” “These phenomena set my creativity in motion.”. Thomas’s paintings from the National Air and Space Museum’s art collection Blast Off, 1970 and Snoopy Sees a Sunrise, 1970 will be on loan for the exhibition. Do you enjoy and value Culture Type? Alma Thomas was selected for the opportunity and when her show opened in 1972, she became the first African American woman to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum. 1970 Alma Thomas: Earth and Space Paintings, Franz Bader Gallery, Washington, DC. 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. Alma Thomas, Lunar Rendezvous-Circle of Flowers, at Aaron Payne Fine Art Thomas, per Cotter, was one of only a few women artists whose work the … Alma Thomas’s art is political—and she responded with color. In the wake of meetings with the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition, the Whitney Museum of American Art agreed to present a series of solo exhibitions featuring African American artists in a small lobby gallery. See more ideas about alma thomas, thomas, things to sell. Thomas was among those selected for the opportunity and when her show opened in 1972, she became the first African American woman to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum. You meet that when you go out, and then you have to come back and see the same thing hanging on the wall. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, artist Alma Woodsey Thomas (1891–1978) painted abstractions inspired by moments—from nature viewed through her living room windows to the Apollo Moon landings witnessed on the television screen. Culture Type® is also an affiliate of Bookshop.org, whose mission is to financially support local, independent bookstores. The painting is the first artwork by an African American woman to hang in the public spaces of the White House and enter the … The American astronauts were the first people to visit the moon and Armstrong was the first to walk the surface. “I was born at the end of the 19th century, horse-and-buggy days, and experienced the phenomenal changes of the 20th century machine and space age. Courtesy Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY. The series Space, Snoopy and Earth were applying pointillism. “Mars Dust” (1972) was among the works on view. 3 See Cynthia Hodge-Thorne, “The Politics of Space: Alma Thomas And Race Relations in 1960’s America” (MA Thesis, American University, 2019), 23. (New York—March 12, 2015) Michael Rosenfeld Gallery is pleased to present Alma Thomas: Moving Heaven & Earth, Paintings and Works on Paper, 1958-1978, an exhibition of over forty exuberant paintings, drawings, and watercolors. For her earliest abstractions, Alma Woodsey Thomas sought inspiration in the natural world. Here are 10 things to know about Alma Woodsey Thomas, along with some of her paintings, and images of Thomas herself: 1. Continue Carolyn Russo is a museum specialist in the Aeronautics Division and is the curator of the art collection. This time in history resonates with the recent protests in response to the tragic racialized deaths of African American men and women—and centuries of inequality for Americans of color. All Rights Reserved. Alma Thomas began to paint seriously in 1960, when she retired from her thirty-eight year career as an art teacher in the public schools of Washington, D.C. | Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Vincent Melzac, 1976.140.3, ALMA THOMAS, “Snoopy-Early Sun Display on Earth,” 1970 (acrylic on canvas, 49 7/8 x 48 1/8 inches / 126.8 x 122.1 cm). The program helps offset a small portion of the countless hours and expense required to research, report, write and produce Culture Type's content. art historian Cynthia Thorne Hodges asserts that Thomas depicted new worlds with “limitless opportunities” in space through her abstractions. View Alma Thomas’s 107 artworks on artnet. Characterized by brightly colored, lozenge-shaped brushstrokes arranged in long bands or dense, puzzle-like patterns, the style broke significantly with Thomas’s earlier realistic paintings. Culture Type is an independent art history project that requires countless hours and expense to research, report, write, and produce. Gift of Vincent Melzac. On first glance, these paintings seem simplistic. The astronauts were exploring a new frontier 240,000 miles away and the rest of the world could only imagine the experience, but had some insight because of the images shown on television. “Starry Night with Astronauts” (1972) is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Alma Woodsey Thomas was an American artist and educator whose distinctive color field paintings recall the techniques of Pointillism and Abstract Expressionism while representing an altogether independent artistic vision and body of work. The Eclipse is from her series “Space Paintings,” which includes at least fifteen works covering topics from rocket launches to … Alma Woodsey Thomas developed her signature abstract painting style in her late 70s, after spending more than three decades teaching art in a Washington, D.C., junior high school. Her interest and response to space exploration and technological advancements are another expression of this growth,” Haynes concluded. | Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, ALMA THOMAS, “Celestial Fantasy,” 1973 (acrylic on canvas, 60 x 54 inches / 152.4 x 137.2 cm). Characterized by brightly colored, lozenge-shaped brushstrokes arranged in long bands or dense, puzzle-like patterns, the style broke significantly with Thomas’s earlier realistic paintings. Alma Thomas: Moving Heaven & Earth Paintings and Works on Paper, 1958-1978, March 20 – May 16, 2015 (New York—March 12, 2015) Michael Rosenfeld Gallery is pleased to present Alma Thomas: Moving Heaven & Earth, Paintings and Works on Paper, 1958-1978, an exhibition of over forty exuberant paintings, drawings, and watercolors. Color Balance: Paintings by Felrath Hines and Alma Thomas was a groundbreaking exhibition that contextualized a recent gift of abstract paintings by Felrath Hines (given to three area university art museums) by juxtaposing them with works by contemporary abstractionist Alma Woodsey Thomas… ", Painting in an abstract style allowed the artist to respond to the racial injustices of her day and the polarized achievements of the Moon landings where African Americans and women were excluded, with an imagined world—both on Earth and outer space—where all colors are represented and equal.