THE NEW YORK TIMES
Show Us Your Walls
By Steve Friess
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| Lorna Thomas in her Detroit home, with one of her many Richard Mayhew paintings over the mantel and “Sheila” (1978), by Benny Andrews, at far right. |
DETROIT — Lorna Thomas thought she knew a thing or two about art from her classes at Wellesley College in the 1960s. But after graduation, she discovered the world of African-American-owned galleries. “All of a sudden, the light went on, and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, we have this entire body of work out here that should be celebrated,’” she recalled. She began the celebration soon afterward. Dr. Thomas, a dermatologist, a member of the ninth generation of a Detroit family and a descendant of freed slaves, began her collection with a Richard Mayhew landscape. She bought it at a downtown Detroit gallery in 1980 for $4,300 on a two-year installment plan. [
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| “Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden,” left, by Robert Freeman, and a 1987 portrait of Dr. Thomas’s son, Buzz, by Artis Lane |
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| A Mayhew landscape, “Spiritual Retreat” (2002), from Dr. Thomas’s collection.Credit... |
