Talk:Alma Thomas/Archive 1

GA nomination
i'm going to nominate this for GA, since the revscore indicates it. i trust user:Annshafer, and User:Missvain have it in hand. Duckduckstop (talk) 20:26, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

Please consider adding these to Wikiquote
The following was a section added into the subject's article. While the quotes are lovely, it doesn't really fit into Wikipedia's manual of style for biographies. Please consider adding them to Wikiquote - https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Main_Page - our sister project! Please see the quotes below and also use Quotations for reference. Thank you! Missvain (talk) 16:59, 22 April 2020 (UTC)

In the sixties and seventies, she wrote her memories in a journal where she lays some of her views about art.

"Art is inevitably the expression of external conditions, modified though they be by the genius and personality of the artist."

"The making of a picture involves two processes: a taking in of the impression and giving out of it by the visible expression. (....) The degree of beauty in a picture depends upon the feeling for beauty in the artist and his power to express it."

"The use of color in my paintings is of paramount importance to me. Through color I have sought to concentrate on beauty and happiness in my painting rather than on man's inhumanity to man.(...) My goal was not to offend the beauty in nature, but rather to share with others those aspects of it that have given me so much joy. "

''"Color is life, or a world without color appears to us as dead. Colors are the children of light, and light is their mother. Light (...) reveals to us the spirit and living soul of the world, through colors. The colors of the rainbow and the Northern Lights soothe and elevate the soul. The rainbow is accounted as a symbol of peace." ''

"In my opinion Black art is a misnomer. There are black artists and they, like all others, draw from they experiences to produce artistic expressions. If this expression is non representational, it is difficult or not impossible to tell wether the artist is white or non white. There can be no doubt however of the impact traditional African art has had on the world of modern art."

Some issues
I did some fixes and will stop for now but here are some more things that could be done, esp if one has access to the cited books and articles. [Updating this list as I find more.] Sullidav (talk) 20:56, 6 December 2020 (UTC)
 * FIXED - I don't have sources to check but in this quote under "Artistic career" "Within twelve years after her first class at American, she began creating Color Field paintings" the number 12 is inconsistent with the rest of the article - she started studies in 1960, & she was making known paintings by 1963 (rest of article) or 1957 (Howard U show title). Check source and fix for accuracy.  UPDATE - THE PROBLEM HERE IS THE ARTICLE'S INCONSISTENCY, NOTED BELOW, ON WHETHER SHE STARTED HER A.U. STUDIES IN 1950 OR 1960.  FROM HER ONLINE PAPERS, THE ANSWER IS 1950, MAKING THIS 12 CORRECT ONCE THE 1960 IS FIXED TO 1950.
 * DONE - Fix the garble in this NYT quote going back to original source - "expert abstractachiste in style, faultless in their handling of color" UPDATE - NYT WEBSITE TEXT VERSION HAS THE GARBLE, BUT LINKS A PHOTO OF THE ORIGINAL PAGE WHICH IS UN-GARBLED.  FIXED.
 * DONE - Confirm the source article's Hess is this Hess: "New York art curator and editor Thomas B. Hess bought Thomas's 1972 painting Red Roses Sonata, " UPDATE - not in the article (book review), maybe in the book itself.  YES.  NOT IN ARTICLE (BOOK REVIEW), BUT IN BOOK ITSELF.  CHANGED CITE.
 * FIXED - "Artistic style" mentions her "further education at Howard and training under James V. Herring and Lois Mailou Jones" but this education is her undergraduate training, so it's not really "further," especially in the scope of her artistic career. And Jones was 16 years younger than Thomas so not her college professor.  This is what the NMWA source (archived) says but would be useful to clarify -- when it contrasts early work and later becoming more abstract, it means something like pre-1920 and post-1920, all of that well before her professional art career began around 1960. I don't know what the cited Patton book says; it may have a different use of early and later.  NOTE - THIS IS SLOPPY USE OF A SLOPPY SOURCE - UNCLEAR FROM THE NMWA SOURCE BUT IT MUST BE TALKING ABOUT THESE PROFESSORS' INFLUENCE OVER HER LIFETIME WHEN THEY WERE HER FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES, NOT WHEN SHE WAS IN COLLEGE, SO AT LEAST THIS LINE SHOULD GO ELSEWHERE.
 * FIXED - "Later reception" has this "Kainen met Thomas in 1943, at an event at the Barnett[-Aden] Gallery in Washington, D.C. Thomas was accompanied by prominent members of the D.C. art community James V. Herring and Alonzo J. Aden". Aden and Herring being there is unsurprising - Barnett-Aden was their gallery, and their house.  And Thomas was a co-founder and Vice President or something of the gallery, and previously a part owner of the house.  Improve context here.  And expand on her role in its founding and running.  And Wiki should prob have more about Aden, the first head of the Howard U art gallery. [I ADDED A BIT ON ADEN IN THE GALLERY PAGE.]
 * OK NOW - The "Later reception" section had a line that I deleted today as seeming wrong: "in 1943, when she was the vice-president of Howard University's art department," citing the 1998 Fort Wayne book which I don't have. I don't see anything in the article or any available source saying Alma Thomas *taught* at Howard at the same time she was a junior high school teacher.  But if she did, that should definitely be included. [SHE WAS VP OF BARNETT-ADEN THEN, AND BARNETT-ADEN WAS TANGENTIALLY RELATED TO HOWARD (OWNED BY THE HEAD OF HOWARD'S ART DEPARTMENT AND LOCATED IN HIS HOUSE) SO MAYBE THE ORIGINAL WAS A GARBLE FOR THAT, BUT IT WAS WRONG THAT SHE WAS A VP OF HOWARD U.
 * Some descriptions of her style under "artistic career" probably belong under "artistic style" & should move since they are more about the nature of her art than biographical facts. Some things are unnecessarily repeated in different sections, eg, Byzantine mosaics comparison, Signac quote.
 * "the first Black-owned gallery in the District of Columbia" - is this Barnett Aden, noted below? - make the reference more specific and if the same, tie together the 2 references. IT MUST BE, BUT SOMEONE SHOULD CHECK THE SOURCE THAT I CANNOT GET ON THIS.
 * Howard U show discussed twice in different places - make them more consistent, eg, put show title into first ref.
 * DONE - THEY ARE DIFFERENT SHOWS, AND NOT THE SAME TITLE, AS CONFIRMED IN HER ONLINE PAPERS - Under "Notable exhibitions," are the 1972 Corcoran and Whitney shows the same show? Seems likely, but I don't know.  If so, combine.  Also in that case fix the description under "Artistic career" to say they were the same show.  If not, fix titles which are same & prob shouldn't be.
 * DONE _ DELETED - Why does "Notable collections" include an unnamed private collector?
 * DONE - Move Whitney Museum pic to place in article where Whitney show is discussed. Move Crepe Myrtle pic to where that painting is discussed.
 * DONE - Article needs several more little fixes on commas and spacing etc.

Also:
 * DONE - Fix chronology of "Little Paris Group" - was not during her college years but afterward, starting when LM Jones came back from Paris.
 * DONE - Expand a bit on Little Paris Group - it's interesting. [DONE, BUT NOW A BIT MESSY BECAUSE EACH SOURCE HAS A DIFFERENT VERSION OF THE STORY]
 * CORRECTED - "Two years later, in 1916, she started teaching kindergarten at the Thomas Garrett Settlement House in Wilmington, Delaware, staying there until 1923." 1923 seems wrong since she started college at Howard, in DC in 1921. Cited source doesn't support this.
 * FIXED - In her college years - "Encouraged by Herring and another professor and prolific artist, Loïs Mailou Jones, she began to experiment with abstraction." Jones does not make sense here - was 14 years younger so about 16 years old then, not a college professor or professional artist then.  AS NOTED ABOVE (THIS REPEATS A LINE FROM ELSEWHERE IN THE ARTICLE, AND REPEATS ITS MISTAKE), THIS DID NOT HAPPEN DURING HER COLLEGE YEARS, BUT LATER IN HER LIFE, WHEN THEY WERE ALL FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES, SO IT SHOULD MOVE.
 * FIXED - Did she enroll in classes at American U in 1950, or 1960? Compare these two sentences from the article, fix which one is wrong: 1950 - "Thomas also enrolled in American University at the age of 59, where she studied Art History and painting under successful painter Jacob Kainen (along with Joe Summerford and Robert Gates), from 1950 to 1960." and 1960 - "in 1960, when she retired from teaching and enrolled in classes at American University.".  FROM HER PAPERS, 1950 IS DEFINITELY RIGHT.  I WILL FIX THE 1960 BUT FIND A RELIABLE SOURCE FIRST

Sullidav (talk) 05:00, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

More to do
So I delved into her online papers, and i feel like a little bit of an Alma Thomas expert, and I can correct the inconsistencies and inaccuracies in the article noted above even though I can't get the source cited by the inaccurate parts, but those edits need to be done based on sources and citations so may happen over time.

It also still needs significantly more organizing.

Other expansions I would like to do include bringing out the theme of the importance to her of education, which seems like one key to understanding her life - her parents moved from GA to DC, which was a step down in terms of class/salary/lifestyle for them, because of the educational opportunities for their daughters, Alma says she and (1 of? all of?) her sisters went to college so the goal of their move was realized, she was of course always an educator, and she was always educating herself at the same time - consistently through her teaching career she was doing advanced education at Columbia, American U, art educational travel to Europe, the Little Paris group, etc.

Another lifelong theme that could come out in this article is her inventiveness, creativity, making stuff - starting with her childbood dream of being an architect and sculpting with Georgia clay in her Columbus house, she was always creating and making stuff, not just art and paintings.

I would also like to make the point that she didn't find her signature style, for which she became famous - and paint what we now think of as Alma Thomas paintings, made up of those dabs of color - until she was about 65, several years after she had retired, around the time of her Howard show. Before that she was a prolific artist but doing sculpture (at Columbia), figurative painting, nudes, dark abstractions, other color stuff, etc.

Another theme that could be pulled out and is often discussed in writing about her is her joyous optimistic spirit despite all the bad in the world, which she was all too well aware of and lived every day - that was not what she wanted to paint.

Finally, another thing I would like to add is a Personal Life section, because here is a Wikipedia page without a soap opera, Warren Beatty "Personal Life" section - as far as I can tell, she was never married, had no kids, and lived in the same house nearly all the time from about age 15 to her death. With her sister for some or all of that time. Anyway, these are some thoughts I had after delving into her papers and other things about her life.

I may or may not try to edit this article along the above lines in the next days/months/years, but welcome reactions. In the meantime, I think we should rewrite the article's lead para. I will make that a separate topic. Sullidav (talk) 12:54, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

Follow-up to reinforce the "optimistic" point above. From her typed autobiographical notes in her papers (at p4): "Through color I have sought to concentrate on beauty and happiness in my painting rather than on man's inhumanity to man." Sullidav (talk) 15:21, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

Proposed lead rewrite
Since this is a significant and visible change I will propose it here and not make any changes until I have waited for some reaction.


 * Text of current lead paragraph:

''Alma Woodsey Thomas (September 22, 1891 – February 24, 1978) was an African-American Expressionist painter and art educator best known for her colorful abstract paintings. She lived and worked primarily in Washington, D.C., and The Washington Post described her as a force in the Washington Color School. The Wall Street Journal described her in 2016 as a previously "underappreciated artist" who is more recently recognized for her "exuberant" works, noteworthy for their pattern, rhythm and color. Thomas remains an influence to young and old as she was a cornerstone for the Fine Arts at Howard University, started a successful art career later in her life, and took major strides during times of segregation as an African-American female artist. Thomas believed that creativity should be independent of gender or race, creating works with a focus on accidental beauty and the abstraction of color.''

My issues with this, in terms of Wikipedia style & content:
 * Yes to everything in the first sentence, but it should give more sense of her importance - that she is now seen as having been a major 20th century American artist (on the basis that her work is in top museums, she has had important shows, there are many books about her, etc.)
 * Second sentence doesn't need to emphasize the "Washington Post said" so much, this is basically fact. Maybe move the specific quote down into the article.  Also I feel like what artistic "school" she gets placed in may be lead-para important but not second-sentence important.
 * Third sentence - same sort of point as above on the WSJ, the paper is not the point. Also it repeats description of her style from above, in different ways - this para should do that once and well.
 * Fourth sentence - the "influence to young and old" and "cornerstone" and "major strides" and capitalized Fine Arts are not Wikipedia lead paragraph style, make this more factual. The facts in this sentence - including the Howard U link which somebody wants though it seems less crucial for this lead para to me - can all be kept.
 * Last sentence seems detached from the para, find a way to make it more general and work it in, or move it down.
 * The whole thing can be reordered a bit.
 * Points that I think are not adequately conveyed in this paragraph but of major significance about the article and her life: how her talent and recognition of it bloomed in her later years, how widely known and recognized and admired she now is.


 * Proposed rewrite:

''Alma Woodsey Thomas (September 22, 1891 – February 24, 1978), who is now recognized as a major American painter of the 20th century, was an African-American artist and teacher who lived and worked in Washington, D.C. She is best known for the "exuberant," colorful, abstract paintings that she created after her retirement from a 38-year career teaching art at Washington's Shaw Junior High School. Thomas, who is considered a member of the Washington Color School of artists, was the first graduate of Howard University's Art department, and maintained connections to that University through her life. She notably achieved success as an African-American female artist despite the segregation and prejudice of her times. Thomas's reputation has continued to grow since her death; her paintings are prominently displayed in important museums and collections, one has sold for over $2 million, and she has been the subject of several books and large-scale solo exhibitions.''

So I would move down into the article body the Washington Post quote, the WSJ quote, and her thoughts about creativity.

Your reactions, comments & improvements are welcome below. Thanks. If there is not disagreement here after waiting a while (at least a week), I will make this change. Sullidav (talk) 12:54, 9 December 2020 (UTC) updated Sullidav (talk) 15:28, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

Explanation of my yesterday deletion and edit. Bad info in a source
Yesterday (at timestamps 19:32 and 19:51) I changed two lines from the article despite those things being supported by sources, because the sources are wrong. I had put this explanation as a footnote, but now am moving it to the Talk page.

The edits:

1. Deletion, in the para about Thomas's Howard college education, of these sentences
 * Encouraged by Herring and another professor and prolific artist, Loïs Mailou Jones, she began to experiment with abstraction. This technique was avant-garde at the time, since abstract art had not yet become popular in the American mainstream.

2. Change of this sentence
 * Upon further education at Howard and training under James V. Herring and Lois Mailou Jones, her work became more abstract.

to
 * After further education at American University and influenced by James V. Herring and Lois Mailou Jones, her work became more abstract.

Explanation:

The cite for the first sentence under #1 above and the sentence under #2 were both current and old, respectively, bios of Thomas on the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) website. This NMWA page says, "her Howard professors Loïs Mailou Jones and James V. Herring challenged her to experiment with abstraction," and a similar earlier version of the page, archived here, said "However, at Howard University, where she was the Art Department's first graduate in 1924, she became fascinated by abstraction, based on the influence of her professors Lois Mailou Jones and James V. Herring." These statements, which I found nowhere else in this form, have errors. First, the NMWA pages are incorrect to call Jones "her" (Thomas's) professor; Jones was fourteen years younger than Thomas and joined the Howard faculty in 1930, several years after Thomas had graduated in 1924, and Herring was initially the only professor, and later one of only two professors, in the Howard art department while Thomas was there. Second, other sources state that Thomas's change to a more abstract style apparently began in the 1950s, when she was taking advanced art classes at American University, not during her undergraduate years (1921-24).

So Jones and Herring were Howard professors and may have influenced Thomas's change (I left that part), but if so they did it well after her college years, and not as her professors but as her colleagues in Washington art circles -- they were connected through, among other things, the Little Paris group and the Barnett-Aden Gallery. And it's possible that she become "fascinated by" abstraction in college under Herring's tutelage, but did not change her style to abstraction then. Also, neither the cited source nor any other that I saw support the statement (from the article's sentence I changed) that she had "further education" at Howard, after her undergraduate years there.

Also I deleted the sentence about abstraction being avant-garde as tied to the first deleted sentence, it may have applied more to the 1920s to the 1950s, so not appropriate to the new version of the sentence, and I did not see it supported in the second cited source, though that is an entire book. Sullidav (talk) 12:55, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

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