<I>Spring--Delightful Flower Bed</I>
date: label: Date
content: 1967
name: label: Created by
content: Alma Thomas, American, 1891 - 1978
notes: label: Caption
content: "I’ve never bothered painting the ugly things in life…. People struggling, having difficulty…. No, I wanted something beautiful that you could sit down and look at." - Alma Thomas
label: Caption
content: Although she worked as a painter and arts educator over the course of her career, Alma Thomas did not begin her celebrated abstracted mosaic style until 1964. That year she suffered an attack of arthritis so severe she believed that she would never paint again. Thomas eventually recovered and embarked on a journey to create an entirely new style of painting, something different from any she had ever seen. These new works, which she called Earth Paintings, were inspired by nature, in this case the circular flower beds on display at the Washington, D.C., National Arboretum.
label: Description
content: This is an abstract and colorful mosaic-style painting with concentric circles filling a square space with a light green background. Each circle is composed of rectangular shapes of similar color and size, but each circle varies in color and width.
place: label: Place made
content: Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Abstraction
label: Topic
content: Art
label: Topic
content: Local and regional
label: Topic
content: Nature
label: Topic
content: Resistance
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Classification
content: Visual Arts
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of William J. and Brenda L. Galloway and Family
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2015.151
objectType: label: Type
content: oil paintings
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © Charles Thomas Lewis
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: acrylic paint on canvas
label: Dimensions
content: H x W x D (unframed): 36 × 36 in. (91.4 × 91.4 cm)
label: Dimensions
content: H x W x D (framed): 37 3/16 × 37 1/4 × 2 7/16 in. (94.5 × 94.6 × 6.2 cm)