Hello Dolly

Radiating against a glowing pink and yellow background, Pearl Bailey stands firmly at the center of Alma Thomas’s Hello Dolly. There is no question of focus: Bailey is unequivocally the star of this painting. With her hands held wide, she is frozen in the middle of a song, suspended just for a moment on to the canvas. Her gaze extends beyond the pictorial plane, mimicking how she would have appeared in the play’s iconic staircase scene. The background is rendered impressionistically, with painterly brush strokes heightening the sense of movement and theatricality within the work. Though the audience is not within view, the dynamic brush strokes capture the energy and liveliness of the theatre. Painted after Thomas attended the National Theatre’s all-Black rendition of the infamous musical, Hello Dolly!, the present lot is a token of history as well as a journey into a rare section of the artist’s oeuvre.

Alma Thomas, who is best known for her exuberantly colorful abstract works, nurtured a lifelong passion for the theatre and live performances. After attending a performance in October of 1967, she painted Hello Dolly! as a thank you gift to Scott Kirkpatrick, the stage manager for the National Theater in the 1960s and 70s. The show was an enormous success and Pearl Bailey would go on to receive a Special Tony Award for her performance. The painting, which constituted a dramatic departure from the artist’s signature style, has been considered by scholars to be “an act of veneration and gratitude to commemorate the occasion of seeing an all-Black cast” (T. Barber, Alma Thomas: Everything is Beautiful, page 49). Thomas believed that the theatre could have transformative effects and was a passionate advocate of the Black Theatre movement, which flourished in the wake of the Civil Rights era. Believing that the production of works by and for Black Americans was a key avenue for self-definition, Thomas’ Hello Dolly! can be read as the artist embracing explicit representation of fellow Black Artists.

Alma Thomas’ Hello Dolly is a rare example of the artist’s figurative works. One of only four known representational paintings made in the 1960s, it is distinct from the artists earlier figural paintings from the 1940s and 1950s. While these earlier pieces were largely abstracted figures placed against ambiguous backgrounds, the present lot places Bailey directly into the theatrical environment. A commemoration of a specific moment in time, the work captures the actress’ ornate costume and the liveliness of the infamous scene. Bailey is placed at the center of the work, illuminated by the bright light of the theater. It is evident that the radical departure from the style which defined Thomas’ career was a designful choice to suggest the importance of representation of African Americans in the arts. At a time in which abstraction was hailed as the primary style for the fine arts, Thomas consciously denies the eradication of the human figure from the canvas. Instead, she offers a stunning glorification of one of Pearl Bailey’s most iconic performances, highlighting Thomas’ limitless sense of innovation and self-definition.