In the mid-1960s, Alma Thomas created a painting style distinctly her own, characterized by the dazzling interplay of pattern and vibrant color. The Smithsonian American Art Museum has the largest public collection of works by Alma Thomas in the world. Thomas’s art first entered SAAM’s collection in 1970. The museum acquired more than a dozen works during the artist’s lifetime, and 13 that were bequeathed to the museum by Thomas after her death. Composing Color: Paintings by Alma Thomas draws on these extensive holdings to offer an intimate view of Thomas’s evolving practice during her most prolific period, 1959 to 1978.
