Alma Woodsey Thomas

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Alma Woodsey Thomas (September 22, 1891 - February 24, 1978) was an African American color field painter and art educator.

Born and raised in Columbus, Georgia, Thomas moved to Washington, D.C., with her family in 1907. In 1924, she became the first graduate of the Howard University art department. She was the first African American ever to receive a bachelor's degree in the fine arts and, in 1934, became the first African American woman to gain a master's degree in art from Columbia University. She was also the first African American woman to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her early art was realistic, but delved into abstraction influenced by the work of her professors Lois Mailou Jones and James V. Herring. The new approach she developed is what she became known for: large canvases filled with irregular, brightly colored patterns. These works have been compared to Byzantine mosaics and the pointillist paintings of Georges Seurat.