June 18-19, 2019 Fine & Decorative Arts
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/19/2019
Bob (Robert Louis) Thompson was an important African American modernist artist in the 1960s who was greatly influenced by Paul Gauguin's Fauvist paintings. He often used Biblical subjects, and created an effect of idealized, faceless figures. Born in Kentucky, he studied at the University of Louisville art program before moving to New York where he became part of the "Beat Generation" and received a grant in 1961 from the Walter Gutman Foundation. He was most prolific from 1963-1965, enjoying solo shows at Martha Jackson Gallery, Richard Gray Gallery and Paula Cooper Gallery, where collector Joseph Hirshhorn purchased a number of his paintings. His work was also included in Yale University's "Seven Young Painters" exhibition in 1964. Tragically, his life was cut short in 1966 at the height of his career, just before his twenty-ninth birthday, while undergoing emergency gall bladder surgery in Rome. CORRECTION: Title updated
Provenance: Private Collector, Canada.
Item Dimensions: Framed: 20" x 24 - 1/4" x 3/4".
Artist
(Attr.) BOB THOMPSON (American, 1937-1966)
Title
UNTITLED (FIGURES WITH BLUE SAINT)
Signature
Signed and dated lower left "Bob Thompson."
Condition
Board is slightly warped, minor surface dirt, otherwise very good.