Carl Thoma is 77 years old, a billionaire and one of Dallas’ most prominent art collectors. Together with his wife Marilynn, whom he met while attending Oklahoma State University, he amassed an art collection remarkable not only for its quality but also for its breadth of geography, history and style. Thomas’s space is interdisciplinary, and includes Japanese bamboo pieces, Spanish colonial photography, Native American art and an extensive collection of digital art. The latter is Carl’s current favorite genre: “I’m drawn to where art comes from. Experimental, digital, time-based work that redefines the boundaries of media,” he told the Observer.
Most Dallas art aficionados are already familiar with the Thoma Foundation through the Dallas Art Fair—its latest exhibition, “Presence of Absence: Composite Photography,” opened at the same time as the show this past April. The building at Cedar Springs dates back to 1921, the elevator that carries visitors to the foundation’s headquarters dates from the 1950s, yet the installation art that greets visitors as they enter the grounds is modern. In the adjacent gallery, separated by a glass wall, 18th-century portraits look back at the viewer, creating a dialogue between the past and the present.
This is the third exhibit the foundation has presented in Dallas and will remain on view until next year’s Dallas Art Fair. The show succeeds in bringing together a very diverse collection that has relevance. Whether through a digital lens, indigenous voices or post-war Western artists, it explores questions of individuality, authenticity and determination, including works by artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Hito Steyerl and Jeffrey Gibson. A sparkling rosé from the couple’s vineyard in Oregon, Van Duzer, used at the start, undoubtedly enhanced the experience. I met the dedicated and active foundation staff who work alongside Thomas at the foundation’s headquarters. Carl showed me one of his favorite works at the moment, Talking Shit With My Jaguar Face by Eamon Ore-Giron (2024), a colorful geometric painting that explores traditional sacred objects from the Americas.
The Thoma Foundation is only open from 2023, two years after the couple left Chicago. Yet it already feels like Dallas is becoming “Thoma City,” as museum publisher Taylor Mayad Powell puts it. Both of his clients, the Meadows Museum of Spanish Art at SMU and the Crow Museum of Asian Art, are exhibiting works from the Thoma Foundation this year. “Spectacles of Power and Faith” opens on August 23, 2026 and features 63 paintings of colonial South America. This is Marilynn’s passion project; with a total of about 250 pieces, it is one of the largest collections of Spanish colonial art outside of Latin America. Meanwhile, Crow will present parts of the Thoma Japanese bamboo collection at its Dallas Arts District location in November—also one of the largest in the world, with some 300 pieces.
Superlatives seem to abound when it comes to Thomas, which makes the couple move to Texas, where everything is bigger, even more appropriate. Carl explains their motivation for the move this way: “Dallas is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, and that energy was attractive. The community is actively shaping its future, with a strong and collaborative network of collectors, institutions, and supporters of the arts.” And was the move worth it? “What we found was more than we expected,” Carl said of the city. “Buyers here are ambitious and open-minded. There’s real room for exploration.”
Speaking of patrons of the arts: many cultivate an aura of eccentricity, projecting an image of decision-making driven by instinct. Collectors at this level are often known to have a passion for a particular artist or are obsessed with master art that they passed down before its value increased. Carl, on the other hand, makes achieving art sound like a calm, precise thing—a practical rather than an emotional one. Asked about his favorite works of art, he replies: “As children, there are no favorites.” He describes his wife’s acquisition habits as “straightforward: we collect what we like” and adds what I might have guessed: “We don’t collect according to the art market.”
When I ask Carl about the dream art project he’s been chasing, he tells me there isn’t one. And he doesn’t regret the pieces that don’t work: “We make our decisions carefully and with a real purpose. Carl, who is the founder of the private equity firm Thoma Bravo, seems at peace with his decisions—a rare condition for someone who works within the dynamic, competitive and often exciting system that is the art world. Pragmatism and stoicism are not characteristics usually associated with collectors of this structure, but whatever the origin of this approach to art, it is difficult to ignore it. For Thomas, collecting is “an obligation to confirm that experience [of the arts] it is not reserved for the few.” One of the first things collections manager Maegan Robson said about her boss was this: “It should be a rule to buy art and not show it to the public.” For Carl, collecting is a form of work: “You become a serious collector when you understand your role as a manager, not an owner.”
Is there still room for happiness in the Thoma family? “A real dream come true [the collection] accessible, to see it travel to museums regionally, nationally, internationally, and reach as many people as possible,” agrees Carl. The couple also oversees the Thoma Scholars Program, which provides access to higher education to “promising rural and first-generation students with financial need” throughout Northwest Oklahoma, West Texas and Eastern New Mexico. long-term direction,” as Carl explains. “Education is at the heart of everything we do. Building a collection is only part of it. The constant work is to share it, and help the next generation find their own way in,” he concluded.
Carl and Marilynn have acquired art for over half a century: they began collecting shortly after graduating from Stanford in 1975 and today own more than 1,700 pieces, with museums such as LACMA, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Dallas Museum of Art lending works from their collection. They don’t seem to be slowing down, either—in addition to maintaining a showroom in Santa Fe with rotating exhibits, they recently launched First Fridays at their Dallas base, where the space is open to the public on the first Friday of each month from noon to 3 p.m.
However, it is not only the couple’s commitment to helping people that makes them compelling. The strength of their collection lies in its deliberate focus on lesser-known artists and often overlooked artistic backgrounds and periods—Japanese bamboo, photography from the Spanish Americas—and in making them available to the public. The Thoma Foundation is a huge benefit to Dallas and, thankfully, Carl has no regrets about moving here.
Many discussions of art collectors
