Blue Ground Stripe
Alma Thomas
Artwork
Still Life with Mandolin
1891-1978
Oil on masonite
19 7/8 in x 35 1/4 in
Circa 1955
Label:
The first African American woman artist to receive a solo exhibition at a major national arts institution—the Whitney Museum of American Art—Alma Thomas only began to seriously paint after she retired from thirty-eight years as a public school art teacher in Washington, DC. Although she is best-known for abstract canvases of vibrant color, Thomas’s earlier works reflect academic traditions and an interest in representational genre scenes of African Americans.
Still Life with Mandolin demonstrates her efforts to master the concepts of depth, color, light, and shadow, incorporating styles of art historical predecessors such as Picasso, Matisse, and Cézanne. Here, Thomas opts for a reduction of forms reminiscent of Cubism, while her deft use of cohesive triadic colors allude to future chromatic experimentations.
As Published In:
Central to Their Lives: Southern Women Artists in the Johnson Collection, 2018
Southern/Modern: Rediscovering Southern Art from the First Half of the Twentieth Century, 2023
As Exhibited In:
All the Small Things, TJC Gallery, Spartanburg, SC, February 19–April 4, 2025
Southern/Modern: 1913-1955, Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA, July 1, 2023–February 1, 2025, Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN, January 25–April 28, 2024, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN, July 14–September 29, 2024, Mint Museum Uptown, Charlotte, NC, October 25, 2024–February 2, 2025
Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, July 9, 2021–September 25, 2022, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, October 30, 2021–January 23, 2022, Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN, February 25–June 6, 2022, The Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, GA, July 11–September 25, 2022
Central to Their Lives: Southern Women Artists in the Johnson Collection, Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA, June 30–October 23, 2018, Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS, November 16, 2018–January 20, 2019, Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV, March 2–June 30, 2019, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN, July 28–October 13, 2019, Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC, January 1–August 9, 2020, Wofford College, Spartanburg, SC, September 7–December 18, 2020, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA, February 6–July 18, 2021
About This Artist