In 1950, Thomas studied with Hofmann at his school in Provincetown, Massachusetts. She was a member of the exclusive Artist's Club, which was only for male artists when it began in 1949.[3]
Thomas' first solo exhibition occurred in 1954 at Hendler Gallery, Philadelphia. Sam Feinstein noted that Thomas seemed, "not at all concerned with the opposition of horizontals and verticals,” but instead created works consisting of “soft, curvilinear brushings harmonized into a pictorial lyricism.”[5]
In 1955, Thomas was one of eleven artists represented in a show at the Riverside Museum, New York. She exhibited alongside Franz Kline, Milton Avery, Kenzo Okada, and Leon Polk Smith. In Howard Devree's review of the exhibition, he gave recognition to Thomas', "personal color harmonies."[6]
In 1956, Thomas had her first solo show at Tanager Gallery. Art News commented that the works exhibited demonstrated “deliberately selected forms.”[7]
In 1960, Thomas had her second New York show, which was held at the Esther Stuttman Gallery in New York. When Thomas had another solo exhibition in 1961, held at Galerie Agnes Lefort in Montreal. In 1962 through 1964, Thomas was featured in one-artist shows in New York; Aspen, Colorado; and East Hampton, New York. By the time her work was featured at the Rose Fried Gallery in May 1965, she had developed the more geometric and structural approach of the art in the current exhibition.
Thomas continued to paint and actively exhibit her art until the end of her life.
In 2016, she was one of the artists included in Women of Abstract Expressionism exhibition catalogue, a traveling exhibition organized by the Denver Art Museum. The accompanying catalogue, consisting of essays by several scholars, celebrated “the special contributions of women to Abstract Expressionism,” providing an “essential corrective” to what has been the “unequal accounting of women’s contributions” to the movement.[8]
^Marter, Joan (2016). Women of Abstract Expressionism. Denver Art Museum in association with Yale University Press.
^Gabriel, Mary (2018). Ninth Street Women. Little, Brown and Company. pp. 728n16.
^Feinstein, Sam (May 15, 1954). "Philadelphia: Heart's Revolt Against Mind". Art Digest.
^[H]oward, [D]evree (1955). "Eleven Painters and a Sculptor Feature Group Show at Riverside Museum". The New York Times.
^L., G. (November 1956). "Yvonne Thomas". Arts. p. 74.
^Chanzit, Gwen F. (2016). Introduction to the Exhibition in Women of Abstract Expressionism. Denver Art Museum in Association with Yale University Press. p. 10.
