2010 Annual Report - Nasher Museum of Art - Duke University

Color Balance: Paintings by Felrath Hines and
Alma Thomas
March 25 - July 25, 2010 | Brenda La Grange Johnson and Heather Johnson
Sargent Pavilion
Color Balance was a groundbreaking exhibition that
contextualized a recent gift of abstract paintings
by Felrath Hines (given to three area university
art museums) by juxtaposing them with works by
contemporary abstractionist Alma Woodsey Thomas.
Thomas’ large, exuberant acrylics based in nature
made a perfect contrast to Hines’ quiet oils with subtle
color shifts, smooth surfaces and precise edges that
embody a purist approach. Sarah Schroth, Nancy
Hanks Senior Curator, served as coordinating curator.
Hines (1913-1993) was a founding member of the
important Spiral Group, the artist collective organized
by Romare Bearden in New York in 1963 to explore the
role of the African-American artist in the civil rights
struggle. He met Martin Luther King, participated in
the March on Washington and traveled to Fayette,
Mississippi with Bearden and others to rally support for
Charles Evers’ mayoral campaign in 1970. Hines made
a living as a paintings conservator; it was not until his
retirement as Chief Conservator for the Hirshhorn
Museum and Sculpture Garden in 1984 that he was
able to paint full time.
Thomas (1891-1978) was born in Columbus, Georgia in
1891. She was the first student to enter and graduate
from Howard University’s program of studio art in 1924.
Her first one-woman show took place at the age of
68, and despite her belated start, she went on to have
retrospectives at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the
National Museum of American Art; she was the first
African-American woman to have a solo show at the
Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
The exhibition was a collaborative project that included 14
paintings and four drawings by Hines that were donated to three
area museums: the Nasher Museum, the Ackland Art Museum at
the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and North Carolina
Central University Art Museum. The exhibition opened at the
Ackland Art Museum (January 16 - May 9, 2010) and finalized
its tour at NCCU (September 26 - December 10, 2010). At the
Nasher Museum, the exhibition was supported by Horst and
Ruth Mary Meyer, Paula and Eugene Flood, and Nancy Palmer
Wardropper.
RELATED PROGRAMMING
Supporting Members private gallery tour with Sarah Schroth, Nancy Hanks Senior Curator.
First Thursday conversation with Dorothy Fisher, wife of the late Felrath Hines, and Richard J. Powell, Duke’s John Spencer
Bassett Professor of Art and Art History.
Free Family Day event with live entertainment, hands-on projects and gallery hunts.
Free workshop for K-12 teachers.
p. 16 Color Balance: Paintings by Felrath Hines
and Alma Thomas
TOP LEFT: Dorothy Fisher, wife of the late Felrath Hines (left), with Richard J. Powell,
Duke’s John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History, and Sarah Schroth,
Nancy Hanks Senior Curator. Photo by Dr. J Caldwell.
TOP RIGHT: Visitors take in a work by contemporary abstractionist
Alma Woodsey Thomas. Photo by Dr. J Caldwell.
BOTTOM: Gallery photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.