[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]PopUp Painting’s ‘artist of the week’ is Alma Thomas.
Alma Thomas (1891-1978) grew up in Columbus, Georgia but lived most of her life in Washington, D.C.
Thomas was a painter whose practice expanded upon the Abstract Expressionist movement. The artist was known for her loosely painted yet meticulous canvases filled with lattices of bright colours, patterns and depictions of negative space. Thomas was greatly influenced by Henri Matisse, Josef Albers, and Wassily Kandinsky, prompting the artist to experiment rigorously with colour, line and pattern.
Alma Thomas started her art career later in life; having worked for 35 years in a junior high school in Washington, D.C. After retiring as a school teacher in 1960, she committed herself full-time to her art.The artist took night and weekend classes at American University and shifted her work from representational painting to abstraction. Thomas’ distinctive style and experiments with Colour Field paintings soon gained the artist recognition. In 1972, at age 80, Thomas became the first African-American woman to receive a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum.
In 2009 two paintings by Alma Thomas were chosen by First Lady Michelle Obama to be installed at the White House during the Obama presidency.
We will be featuring Alma Thomas’ work all week on our Facebook and Twitter pages, but in the meantime here is a selection of our favourite works by the artist:[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_media_grid grid_id=”vc_gid:1478944648220-f4ff3ac47bb13fb8a7b279d485171a65-2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_media_grid grid_id=”vc_gid:1478944648250-4892a7916235bc7eb1ccaf4ee4ff58f4-5″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_media_grid grid_id=”vc_gid:1478944656422-d9206cd9-93e5-10″ include=”14600,14597,14596,14595,14594,14593,14592,14588,14587,14589,14590,14591″][/vc_column][/vc_row]