exhibits Everything Is Beautiful Oct 30, 2021 – Jan 23, 2022 Phillips Collection Alma W. Thomas: Everything Is Beautiful provides a fresh perspective on the artist’s vibrant life (1891-1978) and multifaceted career that was defined by constant creativity. This retrospective traces her journey from semi-rural Georgia to Washington, DC, to becoming the first Black woman given a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art at age 81. Through artworks and archival materials, this exhibition demonstrates how Thomas’ artistic practices extended far beyond her studio, shaping every facet of her life — from community service, to teaching, to gardening. In 1907, Thomas and her family migrated from Columbus, Georgia, to DC, and by 1924, she became the first art department graduate at Howard University. A constant learner, she studied the latest developments in art, visiting museums in New York, Europe, and DC, including The Phillips Collection. For 35 years and in a segregated city, she empowered art students at Shaw Junior High School to see beauty in the everyday and brought exhibition opportunities and cultural enrichment to Black youth. Thomas’s home located at 1530 15th Street, NW, was her artistic epicenter. There, she created small watercolors, aerial landscapes, and brightly patterned large-scale abstractions that reflect her local surroundings, her fascination with space, and her dedication to the environment. Along with these themes, the exhibition explores her interests in performance, puppetry, costume design, and fashion.
Everything Is Beautiful contextualizes Thomas’s art and life within her creative community, delving into her association with Howard University, American University, and the Barnett Aden Gallery, which she helped co-found. Some of her works are placed alongside examples by her friends and contemporaries like Loïs Mailou Jones and Morris Louis who also helped shape the DC art scene. The exhibition offers an intimate look at this inspiring cultural icon who used her imagination and ingenuity to lead a rich and beautiful life.
Alma Thomas, Pansies in Washington, 1969.
Imogen Cunningham: A Retrospective showcases the innovation and influence of this photographer who pushed the boundaries for both women in the arts and photography as an art form. Nearly 200 of
the artist’s Seattle upbringing and includes works by female artists such as Ruth Asawa and Martha Graham who Cunningham championed, as well as works by Group f/64, which she helped found with Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and others. Cunningham’s spark of creative possibility asserted photography as a distinct and valuable art form in the 20th century.
For $15, she received a four-by-five-inch view camera and a study guide in the mail. The photographs she took with this camera were the start of Cunningham’s 70-year career.
Born in 1883 in Portland, Oregon, Cunningham’s family moved to Seattle in 1889. While attending Seattle High School, Cunningham enrolled in the American School of Art and Photography, which offered home study courses. For $15, she received a fourby-five-inch view camera and a study guide in the mail. The photographs she took with this camera were the start of Cunningham’s 70-year career.
Cunningham’s portraits, flower and plant studies, street pictures, and nudes present a singular vision developed over seven decades of work. The first major retrospective in the United States of Cunningham’s work in 35 years, the exhibition examines
One of her first successful photographs was a nude selfportrait, created as a University of Washington student. At the time, nude studies were predominantly made by men. Nine years later, Cunningham earned some notoriety exploring feminine desire in a series of nude photographs of her
Imogen Cunningham: A Retrospective Nov 18, 2021 – Feb 6, 2022 Seattle Art Museum
ArtDiction | 12 | November/December 2021
