Alma Thomas – Resurrection (1966)

Resurrection (1966) is a square acrylic and graphite on canvas by Alma Thomas, composed of concentric yet irregular rings of vivid color set against a bright white ground. Short, mosaic‑like strokes of yellow, red, blue, green, and violet form pulsing bands that radiate outward, creating the sensation of a glowing sunburst or rippling wave of light. The layered “Alma lines”—Thomas’s signature dabs of color—give the painting a dynamic, almost musical rhythm, while the central yellow forms suggest a luminous core that visually expands beyond the canvas edge. Completed the year she retired from teaching, the work reflects Thomas’s late-career embrace of pure abstraction and her fascination with nature, light, and spiritual transformation.

Resurrection is celebrated as a breakthrough work in Thomas’s mature style and is often cited as one of her earliest and most focused concentric-circle compositions. The painting crystallizes her shift from representational scenes to optical, color‑driven abstraction, turning observations of gardens, sunlight, and seasons into a powerful, nonfigurative meditation on renewal. In 2015, the work was acquired for the White House Collection and installed in the Old Family Dining Room during the Obama administration, making Thomas the first African American woman artist represented in the permanent White House art collection. Its placement in a central ceremonial space signaled a deliberate re-centering of Black women’s creativity within the visual narrative of American history and state power.