Mildred Thompson

Fine Prints

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Mildred Thompson grew up in Jacksonville, Florida. She entered Howard University in Washington, DC in 1953, where she found a mentor in James A. Porter, who was head of the Art Department during that time. With his help Thompson received a scholarship at the end of her junior year for summer study at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. After receiving a Bachelor of Fine Art from Howard, Thompson went on to study at the Brooklyn Museum Art School under Reuben Tam (painting) and William King (sculpture). She began to exhibit professionally and was accepted in the Art U.S.A. '58.

Thompson went to Germany in 1958 and enrolled at the Fine Art Academy in Hamburg. There she learned etching, lithography and other printmaking media. During her initial semester she had her first solo show at a private gallery in Hamburg, and at the end of her first year she received a scholarship that paid for her living and school expenses. After three years at the Academy, Thompson returned to the United States in 1961. She settled in New York City with the intention of pursuing her art career there. Although she was able to sell two of her etchings to the Museum of Modern Art, she did not find the social or artistic acceptance that she expected. She soon realized that because she was a black woman, she was refused the shows and gallery representation that her work deserved. While she was able to work on her art (she received scholarships to the MacDowell Colony for two successive years) but she could not show or sell it. And so she returned to Germany, this time to Düren, and began exhibiting and selling her work. there and in the German cities of Bensberg, Aachen and Cologne.

After ten years in Germany with travels to southern Europe and Africa, Thompson returned to the U.S. in the mid-1970s. She lived at first in Florida, where she was named Artist-in-Residence for the City of Tampa. In 1977 she moved to Washington, DC where she was Artist-in-Residence at Howard University for the academic year 1977-78. In 1981 she returned to Europe, this time to Paris, where she opened a studio. In 1986, she settled in Atlanta, Georgia, where she remained for the rest of her life. She taught art and art history at the Atlanta College of Art from 1990 to 1993. A talented writer, she was also an associate editor of the periodical Art Papers.

Her work is in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution, National Collection of Fine Arts in Washington, DC; the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, The Brooklyn Museum; American Federation of Arts in New York City and Howard University, among others. Her work is also in numerous corporate and private collections in the United States and Europe.

Mildred Thompson was a visiting artist to Littleton Studios on three occasions. During those times her art was influenced by astronomy, spiritualism and metaphysics. "My work has to do with the cosmos and how it affects us," she told Essence magazine in a May, 1990 feature article. Exploring the unseen in her work extended to the workings of the physical world as well as the spiritual one. The look of unseen waves of light (or perhaps sound) is Thompson's subject in her vitreographs.

Email The Littleton Collection (press "contact us" below) to let us know which print(s) you would like to purchase; we will confirm the price and that the print is still available.

Florida, North Carolina and District of Columbia residents: State tax will be added to the purchase price.

Prints are shipped flat. Shipping and handling adds $35 to the price of the print.

Shipment and returns: Your print will be shipped as soon as we receive payment. Each print comes with a documentation sheet that certifies the materials used in making the print and the number of prints and proofs in the edition, along with other important information.

If you are not satisfied with your purchase return it within seven days of receipt in the packaging in which it was sent. The Littleton Collection will refund the purchase price on undamaged merchandise.

Questions: Email below or phone us in Florida at 772/595-9845 (9:00 to 5:00 EST -- long distance charge).