Tiptoe Through the Tulips

Columns of color rise from top to bottom, each stripe built from small, broken patches rather than flat bands. Blue, red, yellow, green, orange, pink, and purple shift along the surface, their widths uneven, giving the whole composition a loose, mosaic-like rhythm. The piece was made in 1969 using acrylic paint, and it is held at the National Gallery of Art. Alma Thomas (1891–1978), an American artist associated with the Washington Color School, worked within the broader currents of Color Field and abstract expressionist painting. Looking closely, the fragmented brushstrokes within each stripe catch the eye, since no single band reads as a solid, uniform color but instead flickers with small variations of hue and texture.