The DuSable Museum pays Tribute to the life and works of mosaics artist Thomas Miller 1920-2012
The DuSable Museum pays Tribute to the life and works of mosaics artist Thomas Miller 1920-2012
VIEW THE THOMAS MILLER MOSAICS
Mr. Miller was born and grew up in Bristol, Va. He earned a bachelor’s degree from what is now Virginia State University in Petersburg in the early 1940s. He served overseas with the Army during World War II.
He came to Chicago after the war and enrolled at Ray-Vogue, where he studied graphic design and was one of only a few African-Americans students. By about 1950, he had completed his studies and soon began his 35-year career with the Goldsholl firm, when there were few African-Americans in the field. He retired from Goldsholl Design and Film in the mid 1980’s.
After retirement, Mr. Miller continued to produce oil paintings, collages, mosaics, watercolors and a distinctive form of printmaking.
As visitors enter Founders Hall of the DuSable Museum of African American History, they are greeted by the beautiful mosaic portraits created by Mr. Miller, of the founders of the Museum, along with scenes that commemorates city founder Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable and the city’s first African-American mayor, the late Harold Washington. Mr. Miller once said, “Anybody can do an oil painting, but to take a face and do it with squares is hard. They have to be turned at an angle to catch the light.”
Over the course of a career that spanned nearly three quarters of a century, Thomas Miller produced over 1000 works of art that include internationally recognized corporate branding, illustrations for books, lithographs, drawings, sculptures, and various other projects.
Carol Adams, president and chief executive officer of the DuSable Museum says of Mr. Miller, “He was an interesting innovator as a visual artist.” The DuSable Museum will be hosting a public memorial tribute to celebrate the life and works of Mr. Thomas Miller, on Sunday, August 12, 2012, from 2 -4 PM, in Founders Hall, which proudly displays the mosaics that have been called Miller’s “magnum opus.”