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Bob Thompson: This House Is Mine
A rich reconsideration of a short-lived but visionary voice in twentieth-century American painting and his enduring relevance
Bob Thompson (1937–1966) came to critical acclaim in the late 1950s for paintings of unparalleled figurative complexity and chromatic intensity. Thompson drew upon the Western art-historical canon to formulate a highly personal, expressive language. Tracing the African American artist’s prolific, yet tragically brief, transatlantic career, this volume examines Thompson’s outlier status and pays close attention to his sustained engagements with themes of community, visibility, and justice. As the contributors contextualize the artist’s ambitions and his unique creative process, they reposition Thompson as a predecessor to contemporary artists such as Kerry James Marshall and Kehinde Wiley. Featuring an array of artwork, and never-before-published poems and archival materials, this study situates Thompson’s extraordinary output within ongoing dialogues about the politics of representation.
Published in association with Colby College Museum of Art
Exhibition Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
(July 20, 2021–January 9, 2022)
Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago
(February 10–May 15, 2022)
High Museum of Art, Atlanta
(June 18–September 11, 2022)
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
(October 9, 2022–January 8, 2023)
Bob Thompson (1937–1966) came to critical acclaim in the late 1950s for paintings of unparalleled figurative complexity and chromatic intensity. Thompson drew upon the Western art-historical canon to formulate a highly personal, expressive language. Tracing the African American artist’s prolific, yet tragically brief, transatlantic career, this volume examines Thompson’s outlier status and pays close attention to his sustained engagements with themes of community, visibility, and justice. As the contributors contextualize the artist’s ambitions and his unique creative process, they reposition Thompson as a predecessor to contemporary artists such as Kerry James Marshall and Kehinde Wiley. Featuring an array of artwork, and never-before-published poems and archival materials, this study situates Thompson’s extraordinary output within ongoing dialogues about the politics of representation.
Published in association with Colby College Museum of Art
Exhibition Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
(July 20, 2021–January 9, 2022)
Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago
(February 10–May 15, 2022)
High Museum of Art, Atlanta
(June 18–September 11, 2022)
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
(October 9, 2022–January 8, 2023)
216 pages, Hardcover
Published August 31, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 22, 2022
On an unusually cloudy Los Angeles day I saw this exhibition of Bob Thompson’s work at the Hammer museum. I had no idea who he was but his large, colorful, magistral canvases provided all the sunlight I needed that day. The paintings are arrestingly original and yet luxurious and full of pleasing structure and spiritual grandeur.
Sadly this book of the exhibition doesn’t do him or his work justice. First off flat images no matter how well photographed for a book can’t begin to convey the striking, visceral qualities of his paintings. However, given that this artist gave so much of his work to all of us, it seems that something of who he was, how he worked, what he cared about should come through in this monograph.
He was well placed in the New York art world yet it seems like very little was known about his life. If that is the case then they should have made that clear. Perhaps they could have simply captured the oral histories of those people who knew him as best they could given the many years since he died. Or they could have just focused on the art and made sure to represent all the paintings as best they could on the page and left out the crappy, opaque analysis of his work that added nothing to my appreciation of this sadly obscure great painter.
Sadly this book of the exhibition doesn’t do him or his work justice. First off flat images no matter how well photographed for a book can’t begin to convey the striking, visceral qualities of his paintings. However, given that this artist gave so much of his work to all of us, it seems that something of who he was, how he worked, what he cared about should come through in this monograph.
He was well placed in the New York art world yet it seems like very little was known about his life. If that is the case then they should have made that clear. Perhaps they could have simply captured the oral histories of those people who knew him as best they could given the many years since he died. Or they could have just focused on the art and made sure to represent all the paintings as best they could on the page and left out the crappy, opaque analysis of his work that added nothing to my appreciation of this sadly obscure great painter.
December 29, 2024
An original painter.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews