Vertical bands of vibrant, saturated color are created with upright dashes of paint in this abstract, square painting. The colors range widely from primary colors to intense jewel tones, and there is no repeating pattern. The dashes are also varying widths, and bands occasionally repeat so there could be two or more of a single color before another shade marches up the canvas.
Alma Thomas, Tiptoe Through the Tulips, 1969, acrylic on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Gift of Vincent Melzac), 2015.19.145

D.C. Artists

Washington, DC, has always been home to vibrant communities of artists. Photographers like Mathew B. Brady and Addison Scurlock documented political leaders and local life. The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design and Howard University cultivated generations of artists, including members of the abstract Washington Color School.

  • Hard-edged, vertical lines of equal widths march across this square, abstract painting. More black and dark-colored lines are along the left third and right quarter of the composition, and the area in between has more electric and indigo blue, scarlet red, lavender purple, and lime green lines, among other colors.
  • Pale yellow, warm orange, rose pink, lilac purple, and topaz blue diffuse this abstract vertical painting. The field of yellow across the bottom rises and deepens through orange and pink to flicker up and touch at points, like flared wings, that almost reach the top of the composition. Purple hugging the pink gives way to shimmering blue edges. Brushstrokes are completely blended so this resembles jewel-toned steam wafting across the canvas.
  • This nearly square, abstract painting is filled with circles within circles, like nested rings, each of a single bright color against the ivory white of the canvas. Each ring is made up of a series of short, rectangular dashes, and some bands are narrower while others are a bit wider. The majority of the rings are crimson and brick red, and they are interspersed with bands of lapis blue, army green, and pale pink. One of two pumpkin-orange bands is the smallest, innermost ring at the center. There is one aqua-blue colored ring just inside a pale, shell-white ring, which is the first to get cropped by the edges of the canvas. A few red, green, and blue rings beyond the white band are only seen at the corners of the canvas.
  • This painted canvas hangs on the wall loosely from four gathered peaks—one peak on each end to the left and right, and two peaks evenly spaced in between. The fabric is tightly wrapped with a leather cord into a fist-like form to create each peak, except for the right-most peak, where the fabric is knotted. The canvas is stained with large areas of soft color that largely meld together, with mostly pink, peach, and yellow to the left that transitions to violet, turquoise, and sky blue to the right. Hard-edged, vivid orange streaks break through the blues and greens to the right.

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Scarlet-red dashes create loose vertical lines against a bright white background that fill this vertical abstract painting. Most of the dashes are vertical but some slant at an angle. The artist signed and dated the work with white paint in the lower right corner, “AWT 73.”

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The backs of two splayed hands, palms down with one coming down from the top and one up from the bottom, nearly fill this vertical photograph and are shown lightly entwined in a field of dark fabric. The image is monochromatic like a black and white photograph but is printed in tones of golden and dark brown. The thumb of the left hand, coming up from the bottom, points upward so the fingers splay elegantly to our left. The forefinger and thumb touch to hold a needle stitching the dark fabric. The right hand comes down to our right and almost touches the left hand. The index finger is bent under at the first knuckle, and the ring and pinkie fingers gently curve downward into the fabric. The middle finger extends straight and is capped with a shiny thimble, which nearly touches the thumb of the opposite hand. The skin on the hands and wrists is smooth and the photograph is lightly blurred, creating the impression of a patina. The folds of the gathered fabric create a shadowy pinwheel effect.

Photography 

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was the first to permanently record an image using light in 1837. His daguerreotype changed the way we consume images. Many innovations like stereographic photographs and tintypes would follow but it was George Eastman’s invention of the Kodak film camera in 1888 that made cameras widely available.

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