Pansies in Washington

Rings of small, blocky color patches ripple outward from a pale center, built from reds, pinks, turquoise, orange, purple, and green arranged in loose rows that curve around a cream core. The composition reads as a kind of blooming pattern, dense near the middle and opening slightly as the bands move toward the edges of the canvas. This acrylic piece, titled Pansies in Washington, was made in 1969 and is held at the National Gallery of Art. Its creator, Alma Thomas (1891–1978), an American painter associated with the Washington Color School, worked within abstract approaches tied to color and pattern. Looking closely, the brushwork shows that no two small rectangles are painted quite the same, giving the radiating circles a handmade, uneven texture rather than a mechanical one.