Upon her 1960 retirement from teaching art, Thomas began to focus intently on her own work, producing a series of abstract paintings that explores the possibilities of pattern, brushwork, and color. In Red Roses Sonata, the interaction of repeated red strokes and an acidic turquoise underlying color produces a dazzling composition, a distillation of the painter’s study of nature and the effects of light and atmosphere outdoors. Like many abstract artists before her, she adopted a musical title to suggest an analogy between visual and aural experiences, between the formal elements of art and the keys or strings one might play to produce music. Thomas responded to the era’s social and political unrest by concentrating, in her own words, on "beauty and happiness, rather than on man’s inhumanity to man."
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the artist, Washington, D.C. (1972–76; on consignment to Franz Bader Gallery, Washington, D. C., in 1972; on consignment to Martha Jackson Gallery, 1973–76; sold in 1976 through Martha Jackson Gallery, New York to Longview Foundation); Longview Foundation, Inc., New York (1976; their gift to MMA)
New York. Martha Jackson Gallery. "Alma W. Thomas: Paintings," October 10–November 3, 1973, not in catalogue.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Two Centuries of Black American Art," September 30–November 21, 1976, no. 91 (as "Red Rose Sonata").
Atlanta. High Museum of Art. "Two Centuries of Black American Art," January 8–February 20, 1977, no. 91.
Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas. "Two Centuries of Black American Art," March 30–May 15, 1977, no. 91.
Brooklyn Museum. "Two Centuries of Black American Art," June 25–August 21, 1977 (extended to September 5, 1977), no. 91.
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, The Arsenal. "Selected Works by Black Artists from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 7–March 30, 1979, no catalogue.
Norfolk, Va. Chrysler Museum of Art. "Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful," July 9–October 3, 2021, no. 81.
Washington, D.C. Phillips Collection. "Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful," October 30, 2021–January 23, 2022, no. 81.
Nashville. Frist Art Museum. "Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful," February 25–June 5, 2022, no. 81.
Columbus, Ga. Columbus Museum. "Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful," July 1–September 25, 2022, no. 81.
Benjamin Forgey. "At 80, Life Can Be Beautiful." Washington Star (May 5, 1976), p. B-1, ill. p. B-6 (incorrect orientation), calls it "Red Rose Sonata".
Lowery Sims. "The Metropolitan: Collecting Black Art." Routes Magazine 3 (May 1980), p. 25.
Lowery S. Sims. "Thomas, Alma (1891–1978)." Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. Ed. Darlene Clark Hine, Elsa Barkley Brown, and Rosalyn Terborg-Penn. Bloomington, Ind., 1994, vol. II, pp. 1165–66, relates this composition to Barnett Newman's work.
Jacob Kainen inAlma W. Thomas: A Retrospective of the Paintings. Exh. cat., Fort Wayne Museum of Art. Rohnert Park, Calif., 1998, p. 34, calls it "Red Rose Sonata".
Leah H. Reeder inAlma W. Thomas: A Retrospective of the Paintings. Exh. cat., Fort Wayne Museum of Art. Rohnert Park, Calif., 1998, p. 133.
Pamela H. Simpson. "Review: Alma W. Thomas, a Retrospective of the Paintings by Jacob Kainen." Woman's Art Journal 21 (Spring–Summer 2000), p. 55.
Holland Cotter. "Got an Hour? The Met in 4 Morsels." New York Times (December 9, 2016), p. C25, ill. p. C24 (installation photo).
Julia Bryan-Wilson in Kelly Baum and Randall Griffey. Alice Neel: People Come First. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2021, pp. 108–9, fig. 74 (color).
Seth Feman and Jonathan Frederick Walz. Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful. Exh. cat., Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk. Columbus, Ga., 2021, p. 18, no. 81, fig. 1 (installation photo, Exh. Brooklyn 1977), ill. p. 241 (color).
David Carrier. "The Magnificent Abstractions of Alma Thomas." hyperallergic.com. January 12, 2022.
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