Celestial Fantasy

Bands of color cross the surface at an angle, with blue, yellow, white, and pink stripes layered so the pattern seems to lift into a shallow grid, almost like a woven surface tilting in space. The piece, titled Celestial Fantasy, was made in 1973 using acrylic paint, and it is held at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, having come to the collection as a bequest from the artist. Alma Thomas (1891–1978), an American artist, worked within the Washington Color School and Color Field traditions, bringing an abstract expressionist sensibility to her compositions. Looking closely, the repeated diagonal strokes build a rhythm across the canvas, so that the stripes seem to vibrate against one another, giving the flat acrylic surface an illusion of depth and movement despite its simple geometric structure.