Alma Thomas, Mars Dust, 1972

Lauren Haynes: So this work, Mars Dust, was created in 1972. 

Narrator: Lauren Haynes is the Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Queens Museum. In 2015 she discussed this work by Alma Thomas as part of a series of gallery talks at the Whitney, called 99 Objects. You can listen to all of these lectures on our website.

Lauren Haynes: With this work, which has the cobalt blue and the darker blue underlay with the red bands that she made using an elastic band to sort of create the layers. And the different levels of red are her interpretation. I think of dust and this dust storm and this very overwhelming way that the color red is taking over this canvas and how the dust sort of took over Mars, which we know as the red planet. 

In 1969, around the Apollo space missions, when we sent the first American astronauts to the moon, and there was a whole series of different landings and explorations, Alma Thomas got very caught up in that. She was really interested in this idea of space, but also the way that technology opened the door for everyone to be able to see what was going on. She has a really great quote: “Today not only can our great scientists send astronauts to and from the moon to photograph its surface and bring back samples of rocks and other materials, but through the medium of color television, all can actually see and experience the thrill of these adventures. These phenomena set my creativity in motion.”