28
●
BOB THOMPSON (1937 - 1966)
Untitled (Reflections)
.
Gouache on cream wove paper, 1963. 610x476 mm; 24x18
3
/
4
inches. Signed and dated in gouache,
lower left.
Provenance: private collection, New York; purchased at Clarke’s, Larchmont, NY (2008): private
collection, NewYork.
This Thompson gouache is a wonderfully strange but typical example of his work on paper - inspired
by the rituals and theater found in the Old Masters.
Reflections
, 1962, an earlier gouache painting of
this subject is in the Walter O. Evans Collection of African-American Art.Thompson made many
studies - even painting directly on to reproductions of the paintings of the Old Masters, like Francisco
Goya, before making larger works in gouache in preparation for his oil paintings.Variations of this
scene appear in several Thompson works, including his large oil painting
Bird Ritual
, also from 1963,
with a similar composition of the arch on the left, and the pair of madonnas with mantles, or nuns,
on the right.
Bird Ritual
was painted in Spain, or shortly after his return to NewYork, where was
inspired by the late paintings of Goya. In 1963, he and his wife Carol were in Ibiza before returning
to New York in the fall. He arrived in time to arrange his first important one-man exhibition at
Martha Jackson Gallery in December. Golden figs. 86 and 88; pp. 111,112 and 179.
[30,000/40,000]
