Alma Thomas was a pioneering abstract painter whose late-career bloom produced some of the most exuberant color harmonies in American art. Born in Columbus, Georgia, she moved to Washington, D.C., as a teen and made the city her lifelong home and subject. Thomas took the garden beds, cherry blossoms, and the arc of the sky and reimagined them as shimmering tessellations of color. In 1924, Thomas became the first graduate of Howard University’s new art department under James V. Herring. This milestone shaped both her practice and the generations of artists she later mentored.

Thomas spent 35 years teaching art at Shaw Junior High School (1925–1960), nurturing young talent while steadily refining her own voice.  She also deepened her academic training, earning an M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University in 1934.

In the 1950s, she studied at American University with Joe Summerford, Robert Gates, and Jacob Kainen. The experience accelerated her shift from representation to a personal abstraction rooted in color and rhythm. She was active in Loïs Mailou Jones’s Little Paris Group, part of a vibrant D.C. ecosystem that included the Washington Color School.  Thomas’s hand-placed “Alma stripes” and mosaic-like marks kept her distinct from hard-edge contemporaries. 

Retiring from teaching in 1960, Thomas painted with renewed intensity. For her first retrospective at Howard University (1966), curated by James A. Porter, she unveiled her Earth series. These radiant, nature-driven abstractions crystallized her mature language. The Whitney Museum of American Art recognized that achievement with a solo exhibition in 1972, making her the first Black woman to receive that honor; a Corcoran Gallery show quickly followed, and her profile rose nationally.

Institutional esteem has only grown. The Smithsonian American Art Museum holds the most extensive public collection of Thomas’s work; prominent examples also reside at the National Gallery of Art and The Met. In 2015, the White House acquired her painting “Resurrection,” the first work by an African-American woman to enter the permanent collection, capping years of White House visibility that included the Obamas’ display of “Watusi (Hard Edge)” and “Sky Light.”

Recent scholarship and exhibitions continue to amplify her legacy. The Studio Museum in Harlem and the Tang Teaching Museum co-organized a major 2016 survey; the cross-country retrospective Alma W. Thomas: Everything Is Beautiful toured in 2021–22; and SAAM’s focused presentation Composing Color ran through 2024. In 2025, Washington, D.C., honored her by renaming the block where she lived and worked “Alma Thomas Way”, a civic testament to her lasting cultural impact.

Collectors have taken notice. Market interest has surged, with new auction benchmarks set in 2023: “Snow Reflections” achieved about $3.3 million at Sotheby’s in March, and “A Fantastic Sunset” reset the record at $3.922 million at Christie’s in May. Strong results have continued across subsequent seasons, underscoring sustained demand for prime 1960s–70s canvases.

For collectors, Thomas offers the rare combination of aesthetic joy, historic firsts, and institutional gravitas. Her paintings are built from luminous, hand-laid strokes that pulse like music, and translate the beauty of everyday nature and the wonder of the space age into timeless compositions. As Thomas herself proved, brilliance can arrive late and burn bright. Six decades on, that light is still widening.

“Alma Thomas.” Smithsonian American Art Museum, americanart.si.edu/artist/alma-thomas-4778. Accessed 25 Aug. 2025.

Alma Woodsey Thomas | Moma, www.moma.org/artists/47098-alma-woodsey-thomas. Accessed 25 Aug. 2025.

“Breeze Rustling through Fall Flowers.” The Phillips Collection, www.phillipscollection.org/collection/breeze-rustling-through-fall-flowers. Accessed 25 Aug. 2025.

“Exhibition Panels.” Frist Art Museum, 11 Feb. 2022, fristartmuseum.org/alma-thomas-panels/.

“Little Paris Studio Group.” Little Paris Studio Group | Plain Sight Archive, plainsightarchive.org/little-paris-studio-group. Accessed 25 Aug. 2025.