Alma Thomas

Alma Woodsey Thomas (born 1891, Columbus, Georgia, died 1978, Washington, DC) is known for her vibrant, colorful paintings. A black woman who grew up under the racial violence of Jim Crow and experienced the Civil Rights Movement firsthand, she did not seriously pursue an artistic career until her retirement at age 69. She resists conventional categorization, whether as an Abstract Expressionist, a Washington Color School painter, or as a female or black artist. Instead, they reveal an artist negotiating her own space amid Washington, D.C.’s, artistic movements, both white and black, of the mid-twentieth century. Frequently included in group exhibitions, she has not been honored with a solo show since 2001. Read more.

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