Dogwood Display II

Alma Thomas was an art teacher at a public school in New Jersey for 35 years before debuting her paintings at an exhibition at Howard University at the age of 75. The first graduate of Howard University’s fine art department in 1921, Thomas, at the age of 84, also became the first African-American woman to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. While working as a school teacher, Thomas kept herself apprised of major developments in abstract art, and created a style entirely her by combining the bold geometry of the minimalists with the more expressive brushwork of the abstract expressionists. Thomas’s faith in abstract painting was limitless, and she saw it as a bold response to the changing times. As she said “A new art representing a new era has been born in America. There is a demand that our times be expressed in new forms.”