Red Abstraction
Object Details
- See more items in
- Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture
- On View
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center, 4th Floor, 37A
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center, 4th Floor
- Date
- 1959
- Object number
- 1978.40.2
- Luce Center Label
- Alma Thomas was inspired by the garden outside her window and painted images that suggest light flickering through leaves and petals. She used dabs and strokes of paint to express the "new colors through the windowpanes" that appeared every time the plants moved in the wind (Alma Thomas: Phantasmagoria, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 2001). Here, the reds, browns, and greens create a warm, heavy mass in the center of the image, which contrasts with the paler shades around the edges. The earthy tones evoke the changing of the leaves during fall, when treetops appear to burst with vibrant color.
- Luce Object Quote
- ". . . through my impressions of nature . . . I hoped to impart beauty, joy, love, and peace." Artist’s statement, in Van Vechten, Recent Painting by Alma W. Thomas: Earth and Space Series, Exhibition Catalogue, Gallery of Fine Arts, 1971
- Credit Line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist
- Artist
- Alma Thomas, born Columbus, GA 1891-Washington, DC 1978
- Topic
- Abstract
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 40 x 27 3/4 in. (101.6 x 70.5 cm)
- Data Source
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- Painting
- Metadata Usage
- Not determined
- Record ID
- saam_1978.40.2
Red Abstraction
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