Alma Woodsey Thomas (1891 - 1978)

Alma Woodsey Thomas was the first black woman whose work was displayed at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Born in Columbus, Georgia, she moved to Washington, D.C. when she was 8 years old. She was the first African-American to get a Bachelors degree in Fine Arts from Howard University and the first African-American woman to get a Masters in Fine Art from Columbia University. As a student she discovered a love of abstract art.

Alma was a pioneer in other ways too: an educated woman artist who never married, an African-American artist who focused on color rather than her culture. Inspiration for her work came from nature, especially her own garden. Her first solo exhibit did not occur until she was 68 years old.

Her style seems simple at first because her brushstrokes are so controlled, a style that has sometimes been compared with Byzantine mosaics. She loved bright colors. "Through color I have sought to concentrate on beauty and happiness, rather than man's inhumanity to man," she said. Her painting Iris, Tulips, Jonquils and Crocuses displays both intense color and a lot of movement but without chaos.

Despite a broken hip and heart problems, she offered art classes to poor children in Washington D.C. Before she died in 1978, she was able to see her work displayed in major cities including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art (both in New York) and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.