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Alma Thomas
1891–1978
BirthplaceColumbus, Georgia, United States of America
Death placeWashington, D.C., United States of America
Biography
Alma Woodsey Thomas was an influential American artist and teacher, best known for her vibrant abstract paintings. Born in Columbus, Georgia, Thomas was the oldest of four daughters. Her family moved to Washington, D.C., in 1907 to escape racial violence in the South and to seek better educational opportunities. She lived in her family’s Washington home for most of her life. After teaching kindergarten from 1915 to 1921, Thomas attended Howard University. Initially enrolled in the home economics department to study costume design, she soon gravitated toward the newly formed art department, becoming in 1924 the university’s first graduate in fine arts. At Howard, prominent artists and educators such as James V. Herring influenced her artistic development.
After graduation, Thomas began a 35-year tenure teaching art at Washington’s Shaw Junior High School. She encouraged artistic expression among her students, organizing classes in arts and crafts as well as marionette plays. She continued to work on her painting and to involve herself in the local artistic scene during these years. In the 1940s, she participated in the collective of artists known as the “Little Paris Studio,” organized by the artists Lois Mailou Jones and Céline Tabary. Thomas also earned a master’s degree at Columbia University over several summers and enrolled in the 1950s in painting classes at American University, where she developed a greater appreciation for abstract art. She studied under prominent figures such as Jacob Kainen, Robert Franklin Gates, and Ben “Joe” Summerford, who encouraged her to experiment with color and form.
Thomas retired from teaching in 1960 and focused full-time on her painting. The 1960s marked a significant transition in her artistic career. Encouraged by David C. Driskell and other Washington, D.C. based artists she gradually moved away from representational art towards abstraction and from oil paint to acrylic. Her emerging mature style was characterized by large, vibrant paintings composed of rhythmic, mosaic-like patterns of color. She found inspiration in nature, especially the flowers and trees visible outside the windows of her home. She often described her use of irregular, vertical, and horizontal dashes of colored paint as “Alma’s Stripes.” Thomas was affiliated with the Washington Color School, a group of color field artists from the 1950s through the 1970s that included Kenneth Noland, Morris Louis, and Sam Gilliam. Unlike these artists, however, she did not stain her canvases nor rely on strict, geometric forms. Instead, Thomas used controlled yet gestural brushwork to create colorful patterns inspired by nature. In 1963, Thomas’ work was shown in New York City for the first time, at the Artists for CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) exhibition, mounted by the prestigious Martha Jackson Gallery. In 1971, Driskell who served as the director of the Carl Van Vechten Art Gallery at Fisk University, an American Missionary Association (AMA) affiliated institution, organized the first solo exhibition of Thomas’ works shown in the Van Vechten Gallery and introduced Thomas’ works to the broader national art community. Driskell wrote letters to the Whitney Museum of American Art urging them to consider exhibiting Thomas’ work.
In 1972, aged 81, Thomas presented two important solo exhibitions—Alma Thomas at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and Alma W. Thomas: A Retrospective at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC. Thomas earned widespread critical acclaim for these exhibitions, and her legacy continues to inspire artists and art enthusiasts around the world.
After graduation, Thomas began a 35-year tenure teaching art at Washington’s Shaw Junior High School. She encouraged artistic expression among her students, organizing classes in arts and crafts as well as marionette plays. She continued to work on her painting and to involve herself in the local artistic scene during these years. In the 1940s, she participated in the collective of artists known as the “Little Paris Studio,” organized by the artists Lois Mailou Jones and Céline Tabary. Thomas also earned a master’s degree at Columbia University over several summers and enrolled in the 1950s in painting classes at American University, where she developed a greater appreciation for abstract art. She studied under prominent figures such as Jacob Kainen, Robert Franklin Gates, and Ben “Joe” Summerford, who encouraged her to experiment with color and form.
Thomas retired from teaching in 1960 and focused full-time on her painting. The 1960s marked a significant transition in her artistic career. Encouraged by David C. Driskell and other Washington, D.C. based artists she gradually moved away from representational art towards abstraction and from oil paint to acrylic. Her emerging mature style was characterized by large, vibrant paintings composed of rhythmic, mosaic-like patterns of color. She found inspiration in nature, especially the flowers and trees visible outside the windows of her home. She often described her use of irregular, vertical, and horizontal dashes of colored paint as “Alma’s Stripes.” Thomas was affiliated with the Washington Color School, a group of color field artists from the 1950s through the 1970s that included Kenneth Noland, Morris Louis, and Sam Gilliam. Unlike these artists, however, she did not stain her canvases nor rely on strict, geometric forms. Instead, Thomas used controlled yet gestural brushwork to create colorful patterns inspired by nature. In 1963, Thomas’ work was shown in New York City for the first time, at the Artists for CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) exhibition, mounted by the prestigious Martha Jackson Gallery. In 1971, Driskell who served as the director of the Carl Van Vechten Art Gallery at Fisk University, an American Missionary Association (AMA) affiliated institution, organized the first solo exhibition of Thomas’ works shown in the Van Vechten Gallery and introduced Thomas’ works to the broader national art community. Driskell wrote letters to the Whitney Museum of American Art urging them to consider exhibiting Thomas’ work.
In 1972, aged 81, Thomas presented two important solo exhibitions—Alma Thomas at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and Alma W. Thomas: A Retrospective at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC. Thomas earned widespread critical acclaim for these exhibitions, and her legacy continues to inspire artists and art enthusiasts around the world.