ALMA THOMAS, “End of Autumn,” 1968 (acrylic and graphite on canvas). | Collection of Richard Grossman and Adam Sheffer; Courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem EXPLAINING HER CHOICE to focus on brightly hued abstract work, Alma Thomas (1891-1978) said in 1970: “Through color, I have sought to concentrate on beauty and happiness, rather than on man’s inhumanity to man.” The quote is published in a new volume documenting Thomas’s pioneering practice. Forty-six years hence, with man’s inhumanity to man swirling all around us, new opportunities to explore the mesmerizing color, beauty and rhythm of her paintings have been a welcome departure. For the first time in two decades, a comprehensive museum exhibition of her work was presented this year. The tightly curated show touched on four major themes—Move to Abstraction, Earth, Space, and Mosaic. “Alma Thomas” was co-curated by Ian Berry, director of the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, and Lauren Haynes, an associate curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem who recently joined the Crystal Bridge Museum of American Art. Co-edited by Berry and Haynes, a new, fully illustrated Thomas catalog expands beyond the exhibition, offering a nearly encyclopedic accounting of her work. […]
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