After decades as a representational painter, in her seventies Alma Thomas turned to abstraction, creating shimmering, mosaic-like fields of color with rhythmic dabs of paint that were often inspired by forms from nature. The artist had been fascinated with space exploration since the late 1960s, and her later paintings often referenced America\u2019s manned Apollo missions to the moon. Although she had never flown, Thomas began to paint as if she were in an airplane, capturing what she described as shifting patterns of light and streaks of color. \u201cYou look down on things,\u201d she explained. \u201cYou streak through the clouds so fast. . . . You see only streaks of color.\u201d<\/p>\n
Starry Night and the Astronauts<\/em> evokes the open expanse and celestial patterns of a night sky, but despite its narrative title, the work could also be read as an aerial view of a watery surface, playing with our sense of immersion within an otherwise flat picture plane. The viewer is immersed not only in the sense of organic expanse that this painting achieves, however, but also in an encounter with Thomas\u2019s process: the surface here is clearly constructed stroke by stroke. Meanwhile, the glimpses of raw canvas between each primary-colored mark seem as vivid as the applied paint itself\u2014almost as if the composition were backlit. Thomas relied on the enlivening properties of color throughout her late-blooming career. \u201cColor is life,\u201d she once proclaimed, \u201cand light is the mother of color.\u201d This painting was created in 1972, when the artist was eighty. In the same year, she became the first African American woman to receive a solo exhibition at a major art museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.<\/p>\n","short_description":"Alma Thomas was enthralled by astronauts and outer space. This painting, made when she was 81, showcases that fascination through her signature style of short, rhythmic strokes of paint. \u201cColor is life, and light is the mother of color,\u201d she once proclaimed. In 1972, she became the first African American woman to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.","dimensions":"152.4 \u00d7 134.6 cm (60 \u00d7 53 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":134,"height":152,"diameter":null,"clarification":null}],"medium_display":"Acrylic on canvas","inscriptions":null,"credit_line":"Purchased with funds provided by Mary P. Hines in memory of her mother, Frances W. Pick","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":"Alma Thomas, alma w. thomas, exh. cat. (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1972), n.p., cat. 19. \n\nGene Baro, David C. Driskell, and Jacob Kainen, Alma W. Thomas, exh. cat. (Washington D.C.: Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1972), n.p., cat. 35.\n\nJan Keene Muhlert, Color and Image: Six Artists from Washington, exh. cat. (Iowa City: University of Iowa, 1975), n.p., cat. 80.\n\nAnderson Gallery, Selected Works from the Gallery Collection, exh. checklist (Buffalo: Anderson Gallery), n.p., cat. 23. \n\nAndrea D. Barnwell, \u201cPortfolio,\u201d Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 24, 2 (1999), 213, no. 24.\n\nAndrea D. Barnwell and Kirsten P. Buick, \u201cA Portfolio of Works by African American Artists Continuing the Dialogue: A Work in Progress,\u201d Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 24, 2 (1999), 187.\n\nIan Berry and Lauren Haynes, Alma Thomas, exh. cat. (Studio Museum in Harlem\/Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College\/DelMonico Books, 2015), 107, 142, 143 (color ill.), 150, 151 (color ill.), 234 (ill.), 246, 250.\n\nRichard Kalina, \"Through Color,\" Art in America, 104, 5 (May 2016), 124 (color ill.), 125.\n\nKen Johnson, \"'Alma Thomas,' and Incandescent Painter\" The New York Times (online), Aug. 4, 2016, https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/08\/05\/arts\/design\/alma-thomas-an-incandescent-pioneer.html \n\nSeth Feman and Jonathan Frederick Walz, eds. Alma W. Thomas: Everything Is Beautiful, exh. cat. (Columbus, GA: The Columbus Museum, 2021), 295, cat. 143 (color ill.).\n\nNeil Steinberg, \u201cArt can take you to a particular place,\u201d Chicago Tribune, Dec. 20, 2023, 2 (color ill.).\n\nJames Rondeau, Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago: Highlights of the Collection (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 2025), 181 (color ill.).","exhibition_history":"New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Alma W. Thomas Retrospective, Apr. 25\u2013May 28, 1972, cat. 19.\n\nWashington D.C., Corcoran Gallery of Art, Alma W. Thomas Retrospective Exhibition, Sept. 8\u2013Oct. 15, 1972, cat. 35.\n\nNew York, Martha Jackson Gallery, Alma Thomas, Oct. 10\u2013Nov. 3, 1973, not in cat.\n\nNew York, Women\u2019s International Art Center, Ten Black Women, May 1\u201323, 1975, no cat.\n\nIowa City, University of Iowa, Color and Image: Six Artists from Washington, Sept. 5\u2013Nov. 18, 1975, cat. 80.\n\nBuffalo, Anderson Gallery, Selected Works from the Gallery Collection, Oct. 5\u2013Nov. 16, 1991, cat. 23, exhibition checklist. \n\nSaratoga, Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Alma Thomas, Feb. 6\u2013June 5, no cat. no.; New York, Studio Museum in Harlem, July 14\u2013Oct. 30, 2016.\n\nNorfolk, VA, Chrysler Museum of Art, Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful, July 9, 2021-Oct. 3, 2021, cat. 143; Washington D.C., The Phillips Collection, Oct. 30, 2021-Jan. 23, 2022; Nashville, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Feb. 25, 2022-June 5, 2022; Columbus, GA, Columbus Museum July 1, 2022- Sept. 25, 2022.","provenance_text":"The artist; sold to Martha Jackson Gallery [later Anderson Gallery, Buffalo, NY], New York, Oct. 9, 1973 [invoice; copy in curatorial object file]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, Mar. 14, 1994.","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":246,"fiscal_year":1994,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":false,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":1280,"copyright_notice":"\u00a9 Estate of Alma Thomas (Courtesy of the Hart Family) \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York","has_multimedia_resources":false,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":53.6375,"color":{"h":45,"l":49,"s":94,"percentage":0.0035946655163737015,"population":29},"latitude":41.8805769576144,"longitude":-87.6218733015747,"latlon":"41.880576957614,-87.621873301575","is_on_view":true,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":"Gallery 297","gallery_id":25473,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Painting","artwork_type_id":1,"department_title":"Contemporary Art","department_id":"PC-8","artist_id":44708,"artist_title":"Alma Thomas","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[44708],"artist_titles":["Alma Thomas"],"category_ids":["PC-8","PC-142","PC-825","PC-830"],"category_titles":["Contemporary Art","African American artists","Women artists","African Diaspora"],"term_titles":["painting","painting (image making)","acrylic paint","patterns","contemporary","canvas","blue (color)","red (color)","orange (color)","yellow (color)","modern and contemporary art"],"style_id":"TM-12062","style_title":"contemporary","alt_style_ids":[],"style_ids":["TM-12062"],"style_titles":["contemporary"],"classification_id":"TM-9","classification_title":"painting","alt_classification_ids":["TM-155"],"classification_ids":["TM-9","TM-155"],"classification_titles":["painting","modern and contemporary art"],"subject_id":"TM-12793","alt_subject_ids":["TM-11843","TM-11851","TM-11905","TM-11842"],"subject_ids":["TM-12793","TM-11843","TM-11851","TM-11905","TM-11842"],"subject_titles":["patterns","blue (color)","red (color)","orange (color)","yellow (color)"],"material_id":"TM-2407","alt_material_ids":["TM-3124"],"material_ids":["TM-2407","TM-3124"],"material_titles":["acrylic paint","canvas"],"technique_id":"TM-3891","alt_technique_ids":[],"technique_ids":["TM-3891"],"technique_titles":["painting (image making)"],"theme_titles":["African American artists","Women artists","African Diaspora"],"image_id":"e966799b-97ee-1cc6-bd2f-a94b4b8bb8f9","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":[],"sound_ids":[],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_boosted":"Starry Night and the Astronauts","suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["1994.36"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["Starry Night and the Astronauts"],"weight":35074,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2026-03-11T13:32:27-05:00","updated_at":"2026-04-20T23:20:46-05:00","timestamp":"2026-04-21T03:09:06-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. All other data in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) 1.0 designation and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu.","license_links":["https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/","https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/terms"],"version":"1.14"},"config":{"iiif_url":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2","website_url":"http:\/\/www.artic.edu"}}