Black Arts & Culture Feature:
THE WONDROUS ABSTRACTIONS of Alma Thomas are currently on view at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields in Indianapolis, Ind. Washington, D.C.-based Thomas was known for her radiant paintings inspired by nature and space. In Atlanta, Ga., a High Museum of Art exhibition is showcasing the art and storytelling of Faith Ringgold through her award-winning, illustrated children’s books, and the Guggenheim New York has organized a collection exhibition around one of her Tar Beach quilts. Harlem-born Ringgold worked in a variety of mediums, exploring Black history, American racism, and the experiences of women.
In addition to being the subject of compelling museum exhibitions, the revered artists are also the focus of 2026 wall calendars. Celebrating African American art throughout the year, new calendars are dedicated to powerful works by Thomas, Ringgold, and a wide selection of other artists dating from the 19th century to present.
A selection of 2026 calendars featuring African American art follows:
Cover Art: FAITH RINGGOLD, “Coming to Jones Road Part II: Our Secret Wedding in the Woods,” 2010 (acrylic on canvas with fabric border, 61 x 58 inches).
Faith Ringgold 2026 Wall Calendar
An artist, educator, and activist, Faith Ringgold (1930-2024) died last year and left a profound legacy. Her work viewed society through an unvarnished lens, exploring American racism, the cultures of Harlem and Paris, the multifaceted lives of women, and her own biography. The spectrum of her powerful practice is documented in this calendar, across print, painting, and story quilts. Highlights include “Maya’s Quilt of Life” (1989), a tribute to Maya Angelou from the collection of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark., and the painting “American People Series #16: Woman Looking in a Mirror” (1966), which was featured on the cover of Ringgold’s 2023 calendar.
“No other creative field is as closed to those who are not white and male as is visual arts. After I decided to be an artist, the first that I had to believe was that I, a Black woman, could penetrate the art scene, and that, further, I could do so without sacrificing one iota of my Blackness or my femaleness or my humanity.” — Faith Ringgold
Cover Art: SYLVIA SNOWDEN, “Malik I,” 1994 (ink on paper, H x W: 29 3/4 × 21 1/2 inches / 75.6 × 54.6 cm). | © Sylvia Snowden. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Juanita and Melvin Hardy. 2020.58.9
NMAAHC African American Art 2026 Wall Calendar
Exploring the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), this calendar showcases historic and contemporary artists working in a variety of styles, including Sargent Claude Johnson (1888-1967), Beauford Delaney (1901-1979), Emma Amos (1937-2020), Sylvia Snowden, Chakaia Booker, Shinique Smith, and William T. Williams. “Confrontation” (1969) by Samella Lewis (1923-2022) is a black-and-white linoleum cut on Japanese paper whose title speaks to the times. “Untitled (New York Series)” (2004) by Ed Clark (1926-2019) was acquired by NMAAHC last year. The work of Evangeline J. Montgomery (1930-2025), who died on May 1, 2025, is featured in September.
Cover Art: LAURA WHEELER WARING, “Anna Washington Derry,” 1927 (oil on canvas, 20 x 16 inches / 50.8 x 40.5 cm). | Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation, 1967.91.1
African American Art 2026 Wall Calendar
Drawing on institutional collections across the country, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), Clark Atlanta University, High Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, this calendar assembles notable works from an array important artists such as Edward Mitchell Bannister, Grafton Tyler Brown, Robert S. Duncanson, Jacob Lawrence, Archibald Motley, Nellie Mae Rowe, and Charles White. Of particular interest is the cover work, a beautifully rendered, dignified and expressive portrait by Laura Wheeler Waring from the collection of SAAM. According to writer/researcher Valerie Harris, Waring was teaching at what is now Cheyney University, an HBCU in rural Pennysyvlania, when she encountered Derry, a laundress from Stroudsburg, Pa. The painting won a Gold Medal award from the Harmon Foundation in 1927.
Cover Art: ALMA THOMAS, “Garden of Blue Flowers Rhapsody,” 1976 (acrylic on canvas, 152.4 x 127 cm / 60 x 50 inches). | Private Collection, Estate of Alma Thomas (Courtesy of the Hart Family) / Artists Rights Society (ARS) NY & Paris, Courtesy Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York
Alma Thomas 2026 Wall Calendar
Alma Thomas (1891-1978) was known for her rhythmic daubs of radiant color. An array of works is featured on the artist’s latest calendar, including her concentric and mosaic compositions. The selection displays her dexterity with color from vibrant reds and faint pastels to cobalt blue and multi-colored palettes that span the spectrum. Key highlights included “Resurrection” (1966), which was the first work by a Black woman artist to enter the White House collection; and “Apollo 12 ‘Splash Down’” (1970), one of Thomas’s most revered Space paintings, which reads as an abstract landscape. CT
BOOKSHELF
“Alma Thomas: Everything is Beautiful” documents a traveling exhibition that explored the full spectrum of Alma Thomas’s creativity, from her paintings and marionettes to fashion and gardening. “Alma Thomas” was published on the occasion of an exhibition organized by the Tang Teaching Museum and Studio Museum in Harlem in 2016. Several recent volumes document the work of Faith Ringgold. “Faith Ringgold: American People” was published on the occasion of the New Museum exhibition of the same name. The catalog examines the entire career of Faith Ringgold. “Faith Ringgold: Politics/Power,” showcases the artist’s most potent and profound political works. “Faith Ringgold” is published to document the survey exhibition at Glenstone Museum in Potomac, Md. The volume is an updated and expanded version of the catalog published in 2020 to accompany the show’s presentation at Serpentine Galleries in London. In 2018, the Museum of Modern Art published “Faith Ringgold: Die,” a book dedicated to “American People Series #20: Die,” Ringgold’s monumental 1967 painting now in the museum’s collection. “Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience.” documents the visual art collection exhibition currently on view at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
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