Etude in Blue
Educated at Howard University and Columbia University, Alma Thomas was associated with the Washington Color School, which also included her contemporaries such as Morris Louis and Sam Gilliam. Thomas was a champion of abstraction as an expressive art form that she believed could transcend specific politics, and chose her imagery and palette in response to nature and scientific phenomena and advancements. "Etude in Blue" exemplifies a transition from her earlier style of the 1950s, with curving lines and sweeping marks rather than the choppy, mosiac-like swatches of color she developed in the mid 1960s and expanded upon in the 1970s. "Etude in Blue" also highlights Thomas's profound exploration of color, with its dominant muted blue palette and subtle areas of bright oranges and yellows that move the eye through the composition.
The Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art
One of the most important collections of African American visual art dating from the 18th century to the present, the collection includes 62 works from Edward Bannister, Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Robert S. Duncanson, Richard Hunt, Jacob Lawrence and others. This collection forms the foundation of a multidisciplinary center for the study, understanding and appreciation of African American art and culture. Items from the collection have previously rotated in the Evans Center Gallery and through unique exhibitions such as the 2012 "Life's Link: A Fred Wilson Installation," and the 2017 travelling exhibition of Jacob Lawrence's work.