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Bob Thompson (painter)

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Bob Thompson
Bob Thompson in the garden of the Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, 1965
Born
Robert Louis Thompson

(1937-06-26)June 26, 1937
Louisville, Kentucky, United States
DiedMay 30, 1966
Rome, Italy
OccupationFigurative painter

Bob Thompson (June 26, 1937 – May 30, 1966)[1] was an African-American figurative painter known for his bold and colorful canvases, whose compositions were influenced by the Old Masters. His art has also been described as synthesizing Baroque and Renaissance masterpieces with the jazz-influenced Abstract Expressionist movement.[2]

He was prolific in his eight-year career, producing more than 1,000 works before his death in Rome in 1966. The Whitney Museum mounted a retrospective of his work in 1998.[3] He also has works in numerous private and public collections throughout the United States.

Early life and education

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Robert Louis Thompson was born in Louisville, Kentucky, into a middle class family, the youngest of three children. He had two older sisters, Cecile and Phyllis. His mother was a school teacher, his father owned a start-up dry cleaning business.[4]

Shortly after he was born, the family moved to Elizabethtown, Kentucky, where his father worked for a dry-cleaning business, eventually opening his own business. Thompson's father discouraged him from associating with lower-income black families. As a result, both he and his two sisters grew up relatively socially isolated.[4]

His father, who had expanded his dry-cleaning business to a second location, died when his delivery truck he was driving crashed. Thompson, just 13, returned to Louisville to live with his younger sister, Cecile, and her husband, who exposed him to art and jazz.[5][6]

During Thompson's maturity, his mother instilled higher education unto him and soon, he briefly became a pre-med student at Boston University (1955–56), but soon dropped out and returned to the University of Louisville (1957–58), where he studied painting under German expressionist artist Ulfert Wilke, American surrealist painter Mary Spencer Nay,[7] and German painter and stained glass maker Charles Crodel, who was a visiting professor at the time.[8]

Thompson married Carol Plenda in December 1960.[9] She supported his talent and tried to work through several problems throughout their marriage, mostly Thompson's drug use.

Career

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In 1958 Thompson moved to New York City, where he formed friendships with jazz musicians such as Charlie Haden and Ornette Coleman while a regular at the jazz clubs, such as The Five Spot and the Slugs' Saloon. He also formed friendships with writers Allen Ginsberg and LeRoi Jones in addition to fellow artists Lester Johnson, Red Grooms, Mimi Gross, Marcia Marcus and Allan Kaprow, with whom he participated in some of the earliest Happenings. In 1960, he had his first solo exhibition at the Delancy Street Museum and later at the Martha Jackson Gallery where he had solo exhibitions in 1963–64, and 1965. Thompson exhibited at the Donald Morris Gallery in Detroit in 1965, which created significant interest in his work among local collectors.[10] In 1968, The New School organized a solo exhibition of his work, as did the Speed Art Museum in 1971.[11]

Personal life and death

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During Thompson's career in the late 1950s to the 1960s, his artistic career allowed him many new opportunities such as parties and events which were not possible for people in his position, however, Thompson was soon addicted to using heroin, which later formed into full addiction which caused tragic events in Thompson's life and mental health.[12]

Thompson soon married in 1960 and moved with his wife Carol Plenda to Europe in 1961 after receiving a Whitney Foundation fellowship.[13] They went to London, Paris (staying at the so-called "Beat Museum" hotel) and to Spain, where they settled in Ibiza.Thompson wanted to draw inspiration from the European Old Masters, and perhaps also wanted to escape drugs. However, his drug use took its toll. He died from a heroin overdose[14] following gall bladder surgery in Rome, Italy in 1966.[6] While Thompson had a relatively short career before his early death, he still managed to complete about 1,000 paintings and drawings.[15]

Artistic style

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The Spinning, Spinning, Turning, Directing (1963) at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 2023

Thompson spent much of his time during his early career visiting museums and drawing inspiration from earlier art. One of his major artistic goals was to reinterpret themes and subjects from the Old Masters. By synthesizing Baroque and Renaissance masterpieces with the jazz-influenced Abstract Expressionist movement, Thompson was able to make the art of the past more relevant for contemporary - and particularly African-American - audiences.[15] In his early career, he typically painted large groups of figures in mainly earth tones.[citation needed]

In 1963, his focus shifted towards painting single, central events in brighter colors. He began to paint more expressively, combining traditional symbols and themes with his own imagination.[13] Thematically, Thompson was inspired by the dichotomy of good and evil as well as the relationship between men and nature.[1] His figures are often multi-colored and flat and reflect many of the basic elements of the Abstract Expressionist movement.[2]

Though not as directly active in the civil rights movement as some Black artists of the 1960's, Thompson's close friendships and associations with the cultural figures and themes of the era found bold expression in his painting. His 1961 painting "L'Execution" depicts a lynching, explicitly referencing the violent, racist resistance to civil rights, while also paying homage to Piero della Francesca's Flagellation of Christ.[16] Thompson honored Black artists and institutions with his 1964 portrait of his long-time friend, poet, writer and playwright, LeRoi Jones ("LeRoi Jones and Family"); "The Hairdresser" (1962-63); "The Beauty Parlor (1963); and "Homage to Nina Simone ", a piece dedicated to the singer and civil rights activist, whom he admired and befriended in the summer of 1965.[17] This work, painted that year, is among the final dozen major paintings Thompson completed before his death in 1966.[18]

Legacy

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Long considered a "painter's painter," Thompson's work has steadily gained in recognition since his death.[19] The 1998 exhibition of Thompson's work, curated by Thelma Golden at the Whitney Museum of American Art did much to bring his artistic achievement to the attention of wider audience.

In her review of the show for The New York Times,[16] critic Roberta Smith of the paintings, drawings and gouaches and other works: "Altogether they convey a sense of headlong momentum, of a smart young man in a hurry, in love with painting and its history, with the possibilities of contemporary art and with life itself."

References

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  1. ^ a b Hartigan, Lynda Roscoe. "Bob Thompson". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved March 14, 2015.
  2. ^ a b Carter, Curtis L. "Bob Thompson: Meteor in a Black Hat" (PDF). Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University. Retrieved March 25, 2015.
  3. ^ Golden, Thelma; Wilson, Judith; Momin, Shamin (1998). Bob Thompson: publ. on the occasion of the Exhibition "Bob Thompson" at the Whitney Museum of American Art, September 25, 1998 - January 3, 1999. Berkeley, Calif.: Univ. of California Press. ISBN 0-87427-115-0.
  4. ^ a b Golden et al. 1998, p. 29.
  5. ^ Golden et al. 1998, p. 30.
  6. ^ a b "Robert Thompson, Painter, Genus". African American Registry. Retrieved March 14, 2015.
  7. ^ Golden et al. 1998.
  8. ^ Statement by Charles Crodel, in: Bob Thompson (1937-1966) Memorial exhibit, Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky 1971.
  9. ^ Golden et al. 1998, p. 59.
  10. ^ ""Robert Thompson, Paintings", 1965 Mar. 21 - Apr. 17, from the Bob Thompson papers, 1949-2005". www.aaa.si.edu. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  11. ^ Ghent, Henri (1971). 8 Artistes afro-americains. Exh. cat. Geneva. pp. 72–77.
  12. ^ "The incredible, forgotten life of painter Bob Thompson –– Minneapolis Institute of Art". new.artsmia.org. Retrieved 2023-05-02.
  13. ^ a b "Bob Thompson". Hollis Taggart Galleries. Retrieved March 25, 2015.
  14. ^ Lewis, George E. (2008). A Power Stronger than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226476957. Retrieved March 14, 2015.
  15. ^ a b "Bob Thompson". The Art Institute of Chicago. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved March 25, 2015.
  16. ^ a b Smith, Roberta (September 25, 1998). "ART REVIEW; Trajectory of a Brief Career Hints at What Might Have Been". Section E: The New York Times. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
  17. ^ Golden et al. 1998, pp. 67–71.
  18. ^ Golden et al. 1998, p. 198.
  19. ^ Boucher, Brian (October 24, 2021). "'He Raises the Bar for Me': 4 Artists on the Influence of Bob Thompson". Section AR: The New York Times. p. 15. Retrieved 21 November 2024. The painter's painter, who died young in 1966 after an all-too-brief career, still casts a long shadow.
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