The exhibition’s first section, Move to Abstraction, traces her evolution from a figurative style — as seen in works such as Sketch for March on Washington (c. 1964) to a full commitment to color and pattern. The breakthrough came in the mid-1960s, when she sought to paint something entirely different for a proposed retrospective of her work at Howard University and found inspiration in the leaves of a holly tree outside her window. The second section of the exhibition, Earth, focuses on the resulting Earth series of the late 1960s. In works such as Breeze Rustling Through Fall Flowers (1968) Thomas used her daily experiences of the hues, patterns, and movements of the natural world within the urban environment as her source material, winning the attention of local and national audiences.
Alma Thomas lived through both the first flight and man's first steps on the moon. Many of her paintings are speculations of what flowers, gardens, or the earth as a whole would look like from an airplane or spaceship. The exhibition's third section, Space, presents an extraordinary series of paintings, such as Starry Night and the Astronauts (1972), inspired by NASA's Apollo missions to the moon. The final section, Late Work, includes astonishingly free, almost calligraphic abstractions such as Hydrangeas Spring Song (1976). In these late works, tensions emerge between the bright colors, her brushstrokes, and the negative spaces, creating a continual but controlled sense of movement, an almost musical rhythm.
Alma Thomas, Apollo 12 "Splash Down", 1970. Acrylic and graphite on canvas, 50 1/4 × 50 1/4 in. Courtesy Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York City
Alma Thomas is accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue by Ian Berry and Lauren Haynes. Filled with vibrant illustrations, this stunning volume traces Thomas’s development as an artist: her transition from figuration to abstraction, her fascination with the natural world and space exploration, and the mesmerizing mosaic-like paintings she completed before her death. New writings by Bridget R. Cooks, Thelma Golden, Nikki A. Greene and Lauren Haynes focus on different themes in Thomas's work, and the book includes specially commissioned responses by leading artists Leslie Hewitt, Jennie C. Jones, Leslie Wayne, and Saya Woolfalk. Together these bring Thomas's work to a new generation of readers. As the work of many African-American abstractionists is only recently coming into the spotlight, this important book on Alma Thomas profiles a truly pioneering figure.
About The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College
The Tang Teaching Museum is a pioneer of interdisciplinary exploration and learning. A cultural anchor of New York’s Capital Region, the institution's approach has become a model for university art museums across the country — with exhibition programs and series that bring together the visual and performing arts with fields of study as disparate as history, astronomy, and physics. The Tang has one of the most rigorous faculty-engagement initiatives in the nation, the Mellon Seminar, and robust publication and touring exhibition initiatives that extend the institution’s reach far beyond its walls. The Tang Teaching Museum's building, designed by architect Antoine Predock, serves as a visual metaphor for the convergence of ideas and exchange the institution catalyzes.
About The Studio Museum in Harlem
Founded in 1968 by a diverse group of artists, community activists and philanthropists, The Studio Museum in Harlem is internationally known for its catalytic role in promoting the work of outstanding artists of African descent. Now approaching its 50th anniversary, the Studio Museum is preparing to construct a new home at its current location on Manhattan’s West 125th Street, designed by internationally renowned architect David Adjaye as the first building created expressly for the institution’s program. The new building will enable the Studio Museum to better serve a growing and diverse audience, provide additional educational opportunities for people of all ages, expand its program of world-renowned exhibitions, effectively display its singular collection and strengthen its trailblazing Artist-in-Residence program.
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