Mildred Thompson facts for kids

Mildred Jean Thompson (March 12, 1936 – September 1, 2003) was an American artist. She created many types of art, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, and photographs. She also made prints.

Experts say her art was influenced by many things. These include West African textiles (fabrics) and Islamic architecture (building designs). Her art also showed influences from German Expressionism (a style of art), music (like American jazz and European classical music), and her interest in astronomy (the study of space), spiritualism, and metaphysics (the study of reality).

Mildred Thompson had many art shows. Her work was displayed at places like the Goethe-Institut, Howard University, and Harvard University. After she passed away, her art was featured in important exhibitions. These included "Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction" in 2017. Her art was also shown at the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Berlin Biennale in 2018.

Early Life and Education

Mildred Jean Thompson was born on March 12, 1936, in Jacksonville, Florida. She grew up in Jacksonville. In 1953, she began her art training at Howard University in Washington, D.C.. There, she was guided by James A. Porter, who was the head of the art department.

Porter helped Thompson get a scholarship for summer art classes. These classes were at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. After earning her Bachelor of Arts degree from Howard in 1957, she received another scholarship. This allowed her to study at the Brooklyn Museum Art School. Her art was even chosen for a big exhibition called Art U.S.A. ’58 in Madison Square Garden.

Studying Art in Europe

Thompson wanted to study art in Europe. She saved money by working as a ceramics teacher at Florida A&M University. This helped her pay for a trip to Europe by steamship.

She decided to study at the Art Academy of Hamburg, Germany. Even though she had not applied yet, she was accepted right away. She found a place to live and began her studies. Her painting teachers were Walter Arno and Emil Schumacher. She also learned how to make etchings, lithographs, and other prints. She met printmaker Horst Janssen, who helped her have her first solo art show in Hamburg. After her first year, she received a scholarship to cover her living and school costs.

Art Career

In 1961, after three years in Germany, Thompson returned to New York City. She hoped to start her art career in the United States. However, she found it hard to get her art shown in galleries. This was because she was a Black woman. She wrote that one gallery owner suggested she have a white friend pretend to be her to show her art.

Despite these challenges, her work was noticed. William Lieberman, a curator at the Museum of Modern Art, bought two of her prints for the museum's collection.

In 1961 and 1962, Thompson received special fellowships. These allowed her to work on drawings and paintings at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire.

In 1963, Thompson moved back to Germany. She found it easier to sell her art there. Also, she felt more accepted in Europe than in the United States at that time. Many other young Black artists also moved to Europe during the 1950s and 1960s. They hoped for a better future for artists like them. Thompson settled in Düren, Germany, and continued to show and sell her art.

During the 1960s, Thompson's art showed real-life figures. But in the early 1970s, she began making abstract art. This meant her art focused on shapes, colors, and lines, rather than recognizable objects. Her work in Europe was about "art for art's sake." This means her art was about art itself, not about political movements like the Civil Rights Movement.

After living in Germany for ten years, Thompson returned to the U.S. in 1975. She found that things had improved for Black artists. She became an artist-in-residence in Tampa, Florida. This meant she was supported to create art for the city. In 1977, she moved to Washington, D.C.. She was an Artist-in-Residence at Howard University and had solo shows there and at Harvard University.

In 1978, Thompson won the first Artist of the Year award from the Washington Bar Association. In 1979, she moved to Paris, France, and opened her own studio. Her work was included in several group shows. These included "Impressions/Expressions: Black American Graphics" and "American Drawings II" at the Smithsonian Institution.

Thompson moved to Atlanta in 1986. This became her home for the rest of her life. She taught art and art history at colleges like the Atlanta College of Art. She was also a talented writer and joined the staff of Art Papers magazine. She also wrote poetry and sometimes shared it with her artwork.

In 1990, Thompson had a solo show called "Concatenation" in Atlanta. She continued to have many solo exhibitions throughout the 1990s. Her art was shown at places like Auburn University and the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville. The curator there, Henry Flood Roberts Jr., said people were amazed by her large, colorful paintings and her bird-like sculptures.

Mildred Thompson passed away on September 1, 2003, from cancer.

Art Shows After Her Death

After her death, Mildred Thompson's art continued to be shown. In 2009, a large show of her work called "Mildred Thompson: A Life Long Exploration" was held in Germany. In 2010, her "Wood Pictures" were shown in France. The Tubman Museum in Georgia displayed her photographs and works on paper.

In 2016, the SCAD Museum of Art in Atlanta had a solo exhibition called "Mildred Thompson: Resonance." Her art was part of the "Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction" exhibition in 2017. Her gallery in New York City, Galerie Lelong, began representing her artwork. They presented a solo exhibition of her work in 2018.

Her art was also shown at the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Berlin Biennale in 2018. In 2019, the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art in Atlanta showed "Mildred Thompson: The Atlanta Years, 1986-2003." More recently, her work was shown in New York City in 2021 and at the New Britain Museum of American Art in 2022.

Influences on Thompson’s Art

Mildred Thompson's art was deeply influenced by music. In 1987, her show "In and Out of Germany" featured drawings called Objective Music. These drawings were based on her idea of connecting art with music. She believed that patterns in music were like natural rhythms. She tried to "draw music or sound."

Other influences also appeared in her work. These included astronomy (the study of space), spiritualism, and metaphysics. For example, her prints called Five Mysteries showed simple drawings of Earth, the atmosphere, and the sun. Her watercolor paintings, Lemurian Wanderings, were described as showing "the time at the dawn of the world." Her drawings, The Phases of Cynthia, were inspired by Galileo Galilei's study of the moon's phases.

In 1990, Thompson told Essence magazine, "My work has to do with the cosmos and how it affects us." She continued to explore these ideas in her prints. In 1993, she created prints with titles like Helio Centric, Particles, and Wave Function.

Music, especially jazz artists like Eric Dolphy and Thelonious Monk, and classical music like Johann Sebastian Bach, also influenced her. Thompson believed that humans can hear many sounds but only see a few colors. This led her to explore "the unseen and making it visible" in her art. Her Magnetic Fields paintings showed the force of unseen energy. They were colorful and used geometric shapes, but also had a feeling of freedom and improvisation.

Teaching Career

Mildred Thompson was also a dedicated teacher. From 1961 to 1964, she taught elementary school in New York City. In Germany, she taught art and art history from 1965 to 1974.

As an Artist-in-Residence in Tampa, Florida, she taught painting, drawing, sculpture, and mural painting. She taught both adults and children. She also had an "open door" policy at her studio. This meant anyone could come in and watch her work. She felt this helped the community.

When she was an Artist-in-Residence at Howard University, she taught etching. In Paris, she gave private art lessons. After moving to Atlanta in 1986, she taught at several colleges. These included Agnes Scott College, Morehouse College, Spelman College, and the Atlanta College of Art. She taught studio art classes, art history, and art theory.

Personal Life

Mildred Thompson had a sister named Ruth and a partner named Donna Jackson. In Atlanta, she was known for her unique purple Afro hairstyle.

She loved music and sang and played guitar in a band called We Do Blues. Her partner, Donna Jackson, was also in the band. They often played at a barbecue restaurant and in Woodruff Park. A band member, Kerry Davis, said Mildred liked "happy blues" songs. She wrote uplifting songs like "A Peacock in the Ghetto," which had humor and beauty but still sounded like the blues.

Public Art Collections

Mildred Thompson's art can be found in many public collections. These include:

• Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.
• National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.
• Museum of Modern Art in New York City
• Brooklyn Museum in New York City
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in Texas
• Leopold Hoesch Museum in Germany

Her artwork is now represented by Galerie Lelong in New York City. An estate has been set up to manage her artistic legacy.