Mildred Thompson: Cosmos Calling

Galerie Lelong, New York, is pleased to announce an upcoming exhibition of work by Mildred Thompson (b. 1936-d. 2003), the gallery's third exhibition dedicated to the groundbreaking American artist. Entitled Cosmos Calling, the exhibition presents her masterwork Music of the Spheres paintings alongside a selection from her Heliocentric Series. In these bodies of works, Thompson turns her longstanding interest in the invisible forces that make up the fabric of the universe toward our solar system. Created in the early-to-mid 1990s, the works on view represent the coalescence of Thompson's artistic practice with her deep personal interests in astrophysics and music. In an artist statement from the same decade, "I seek to portray some of the profound meanings and influences indicated by the invisible dimensions and realities around us. My works are physical manifestations of my understanding and appreciation for the experience." Working with a vibrant palette of colors, each assigned by Thompson to a different invisible force or phenomena, Thompson sought to invoke a spiritual journey through space. Cosmos Calling marks the first public showing in New York of these paintings and their accompanying electronic music compositions. This gallery show coincides with the exhibition Hard Art at MoMA PS1 in New York and Along the Color Line - Traces of a Transatlantic Modernism at Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Germany, in which other works by Thompson are on view.

Thompson—who spent many decades early in her career moving between the US, France, and Germany in pursuit of artistic opportunities—settled full-time in Atlanta in 1986 when she became an artist-in-residence at Spelman College, and later began teaching at Atlanta College of Art. With this stability came new opportunity, namely in a dedicated studio space near her home that allowed Thompson to work on an expanded scale. In this studio, she created her Music of the Spheres paintings, her largest ever works, each triptych measuring eight feet tall and twelve feet wide depicting one of the planets in the solar system. Accompanying the paintings are musical compositions inspired by the NASA Voyager recordings, created by Thompson using electronics, toy instruments, and found objects. Together, each painting and sonic composition invokes the emotional atmosphere Thompson related to the corresponding planet: communication and contentment for Mercury, vitality and beauty for Venus, optimism and enthusiasm for Jupiter, and passion and violent change for Mars. Seen as a whole, the series and their electronic accompaniment guide the viewer on a sensory expedition through the solar system.

A selection of paintings from Thompson's Heliocentric Series continues her explorations of outer space, rendering the movement of the planets depicted in the Music of the Spheres paintings. Rendered in magenta and pink hues, these abstract compositions are comprised of spiraling ovoid forms. Thompson intersperses bands of cobalt blue that lend the compositions a sense of movement. Here, Thompson illustrates the endless dance between gravitational pull and inertia that keep the planets in orbit. Complementing the paintings on view, a selection of works on paper and ephemera created during Thompson's Atlanta years offer an expanded understanding of the coalescence of Thompson's practice and interests. Across the works on view, Thompson using vibrant color and energetic movement to relay the ever-present forces of the universe.