Thelma Johnson Streat
August 29, 1911
Artist, dancer, and educator
The first African American woman to have a painting exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City
Thelma Streat was born in Yakima, Washington. Streat started painting at nine and first gained national recognition at 17 when her painting “A Priest” won an honorable mention at the Harmon Foundation exhibit in 1929. In 1942, she became the first African American woman to have a painting exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and her most famous painting “Rabbit Man” (1941) is part of their permanent collection. Streat also painted a series of portraits of famous people of African ancestry, including Marian Anderson, Paul Roberson, and Harriet Tubman. In addition to the Museum of Modern Art, Streat’s paintings have been part of exhibits at many other museums, including the San Francisco Museum of Art, the City of Paris Gallery, and the Art Institute of Chicago. In addition to being an artist, Streat traveled to Haiti, Mexico, and Canada to study the traditional dance and culture of indigenous people. In 1950, she performed a dance recital at Buckingham Palace for the King and Queen of England. Streat led the Children’s Education Project to introduce American youth to the contributions of African Americans through a series of murals. Streat died on May 16, 1959.
