Bob Thompson (Ahmanson-Murphy Fine Arts Book) Book

The remarkably talented, if previously neglected, African American painter Bob Thompson (1937-1966) finally has his day in the sun. This excellent book, published to accompany an important exhibit at New York's Whitney Museum, tells the story of an artist who overdosed on heroin at age 29, but not before leaving many dozens of excellent canvases, mostly inspired by the mythological scenes of classical painters like Poussin. Subjects such as Mars and Venus and The Massacre of the Innocents show Thompson's fascination with the artistic past, and the very personal variations of this essentially self-taught painter have a winning energy and skill. His portraits of friends such as Leroi Jones and Allen Ginsberg are less outstandingly original, recalling the work of New York painters like Alice Neel. Art historians Thelma Golden and Judith Wilson are well informed about Thompson's artistic and literary contacts, his trips to Europe for inspiration, and his appetite for European culture--which make his life all the more tragic in its brevity. Still, his exuberantly graceful and colorful canvases remain, and these are well reproduced in the present book. Elegance of gesture was of primary importance to Thompson, and his works kept on improving until the very end. He was an important American painter, and fully worthy of the attention he is at long last getting. This book will intrigue anyone interested in modern figurative art. The only disappointing element is the brief and somewhat confused notes on individual paintings. Otherwise, this is a very useful title, whether or not one has visited the Whitney retrospective. --Benjamin Ivry Read More