Artist Mildred Thompson Headlines Fall Exhibition at the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art
The Spelman College Museum of Fine Art will launch its 2019-2020 exhibition season with the Atlanta premiere of “Mildred Thompson: The Atlanta Years, 1986 – 2003” on view Wednesday, Sept. 11 through Saturday, Dec. 7.
This original exhibition, curated by Andrea Barnwell Brownlee, Ph.D., C’93, director of the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, and Melissa Messina, curator of the Mildred Thompson Estate, is the artist’s first large-scale, interdisciplinary solo exhibition in the city.
Mildred Thompson
American abstract artist Mildred Thompson (b. Jacksonville, FL, 1936; d. Atlanta, GA, 2003) spent much of her early career in Germany and France in response to the racial and gender discrimination she faced in the United States. In 1986 she accepted an invitation to be an artist-in-residence at Spelman College. She lived in Atlanta for the remainder of her life where her practice of abstraction flourished. This period marks a particularly prolific time in the artist’s career during which she was a professor at several area colleges, associate editor of Art Papers magazine, and a practicing visual artist, writer, and musician.
This exhibition honors Thompson’s life-long commitment to creating a universally resonant abstract visual language. The over 30 paintings, drawings, and prints on view demonstrate her a affinity for exploring the rhythms and patterns of science and music and interpreting the workings of the cosmos and other natural phenomena. This selection of works represents the scale, complexity, dynamism, and energy of Thompson’s unique visual vocabulary, as well as her ability to translate these concepts across media.
Throughout her artistic career, Mildred Thompson sought to find meaning in the world through abstraction. Thompson, an artist committed to affirming humankind’s common bond to the systems of the universe, explored space, sound, and other elements that were not visible to the naked eye through shapes, color, lines, forms, and patterns. Figuration and representation were—and arguably still are—the primary modes of expression for African American artists. Thompson was often excluded from exhibitions and, as a result, did not receive critical attention during her lifetime. Thompson, along with other Black abstract practitioners of her generation, is now receiving long-overdue recognition.
“Thompson, an expansive thinker and a force of nature who knew no boundaries, made an indelible imprint on Atlanta,” Dr. Brownlee stated. “The timely opportunity to present her work at Spelman—the institution that invited her to establish a relationship with the city—and examine the breadth of her work and the evolution of her career is particularly rewarding.”
Messina stated, “As the accomplishments of Black female abstract artists are being revitalized today, so too is the late Mildred Thompson’s work prompting renewed appreciation. We are very pleased to be working with Dr. Brownlee and Spelman College to bring Thompson’s work to a broader public and to the Atlanta community.”
In homage to Thompson’s many influences and other creative contributions, the exhibition will also feature a selection of objects and ephemera from the artist’s papers on loan from Emory University and the Estate’s collection, including books, photographs, music and writings.
The Museum’s 2019 – 2020 exhibition season is made possible by the Wish Foundation and the LUBO Fund. Additional support provided by the Massey Charitable Trust.
For more information, visit museum.spelman.edu or @spelmanmuseum on Instagram and Twitter.
RELATED EVENTS
Opening Program
Mildred Thompson Remembered
Wednesday, Sept. 11
6:30 p.m.
Join the Museum for a conversation with exhibition curators Andrea Barnwell Brownlee, Ph.D., director, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Melissa Messina, curator of the Mildred Thompson Estate, and Donna Jackson, Thompson’s partner of 17 years and executor of the Thompson Estate. Invited comments from artists, friends, and colleagues, including Wes Cochran, Kerry Davis, and Karen Comer Lowe, will enliven the conversation. A reception follows.
Register now at http://bit.ly/SpelMildredThompson.
For more information about the Museum see museum.spelman.edu.
