Mildred Thompson, 68; Black Artist Known for Vibrant Abstract Works

Mildred Jean Thompson, 68, one of the few black American female artists trained in European abstract expressionism, died of cancer Sept. 1 in Atlanta.

A native of Jacksonville, Fla., Thompson studied art at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and then spent three years at the Hamburg Art Academy in Germany. Feeling discriminated against by American galleries as a black artist, in 1961 she moved to Duren, a small town near Cologne, Germany, where she taught and created artworks and exhibited for 13 years. She credited her German training for her versatility in many media.

When friends urged her to return to America in 1977, insisting the country was more welcoming of ethnic artists, Thompson became an artist-in-residence in Tampa, Fla., and then at her alma mater, Howard University.

She spent the last 18 years in Atlanta, where she was artist-in-residence at Spelman College, and taught at the Atlanta College of Art and Agnes Scott and Morris Brown colleges.

Known for her vibrantly colored abstract paintings, the prolific artist produced more than 5,000 paintings, etchings, drawings, silk-screens and sculptures.

Her work is represented in the permanent collections of New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the American Federation of the Arts and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Collection of Fine Arts.