Untitled (Music Series)

Earlier in her career, Thomas used a straightedge or bands of elastic to guide the striped format of her compositions. In making this work, she painted more freely, creating patterns of wedges and glyphs that loosen from left to right, as if vibrating on the surface of a drum. Despite the health challenges she faced at this stage of her life, including being hospitalized for two months after breaking her hip in 1974, Thomas continued to create large paintings, sometimes propping herself up to do so.

With its simple yet dazzling red-and-white palette, Untitled (Music Series) closely relates to Thomas’s largest work, the three-panel painting Red Azaleas Singing and Dancing Rock and Roll Music. See this work on view in SAAM’s modern and contemporary art galleries on the third floor.