CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 2/23/2018

The meaning of color, both racial and painterly

Alma Thomas’ “Pink Dogwoods and Azaleas" (1971) is reproduced from Four Generations: The Joyner Giuffrida Collection of Abstract Art, the stupendous companion publication to the Nasher Museum’s current exhibition of modern and contemporary work by artists of African descent. In his catalogue essay on Thomas, Thomas J. Lax quotes Josef Albers: “If one says ‘red’—the name of a color—and there are fifty people listening, it can be expected that there will be fifty reds in their minds. And one can be sure that all these reds will be very different.” Lax concludes, “Nearly a half century after Thomas laid down her brushstrokes, the meaning of color, both racial and painterly, has shifted several times over in our mind’s eyes. Nevertheless, her colors continue to mark the interface between our immediate surroundings and the limits of the imaginable world.”