Autumn Drama

Columns of color rise and fall across the canvas, built from short rectangular dabs of paint that merge into vertical bands. Purple, red, green, pink, and gray alternate down the surface, giving the arrangement a pulsing, patterned rhythm rather than a single flat field of hue. The piece, called Autumn Drama, was made in 1969 using acrylic paint, and it is held today at the National Gallery of Art, having entered the collection through the Corcoran Collection by way of the Evans-Tibbs gift. Alma Thomas (1891–1978) was an American artist associated with the Washington Color School, working within the broader currents of Color Field and abstract expressionism. Looking closely, one notices how each small brushstroke keeps its own edge, so the stripes seem woven from many separate touches rather than painted in continuous strokes, giving the surface a lively, broken texture.