I’m Myself: Early Works by Bob Thompson and Mates at Steven Harvey Superb Artwork Initiatives gathers works by a gaggle of artists who Thompson first met in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in the summertime of 1958. Thompson had arrived from Louisville, Kentucky, hoping to fulfill the artist Jan Müller, however Müller died earlier than that was realized. The group included Emilio Cruz, Crimson Grooms, Mimi Gross, Invoice Barrell, Jay Milder, and older artists Gandy Brodie and Lester Johnson.
The 12 months that these artists met is critical: Jasper Johns had his first solo exhibition at Leo Castelli Gallery originally of 1958. Johns’s present offered the period’s first actual various to Summary Expressionism, giving rise to Pop artwork and Minimalism, which dominated a lot of the artwork world’s consideration for practically twenty years.
The present exhibition consists of 21 items in numerous mediums by 9 artists, in addition to 9 by Thompson. Though largely sidelined in artwork historical past, the work of those artists constitutes a significant second in American postwar portray for a lot of causes, notably its range — whereas many artwork teams receiving consideration on the time have been all White, this one included two Black artists, Thompson and Cruz, who was Cuban American.
Thompson touched many individuals in his brief lifetime (he died at 28), which is one thing that this present touches upon. We see his affect within the saturated colour of Invoice Barrell’s portray “Summer season Pleasures” (1967). His curiosity in figurative artwork overlapped with that of others in his group, all of whom have been looking for options to Summary Expressionism. Their shared curiosity in drawing, portray, and figuration, together with earlier durations of artwork, from the Italian Renaissance to German Expressionism, units them aside from the prevailing developments in New York.
Though many Provincetown artists would later settle in New York, that they had already began down their particular person paths and would by no means assimilate into the dominant actions that sprang up in New York across the identical time. I believe this separate evolutionary path is central to understanding postwar American artwork.
A fearless, prolific, and protean artist from the beginning of his profession, Thompson’s function in that is central, if not at all times apparent. He was in a position to soak up influences from each up to date and historic artists with out changing into spinoff.“Solar Face,” “The Household,” and “Portrait of Crimson Grooms,” all made in Provincetown in 1958, and 1959’s “Wilting Flower (The Rose)” reveal an artist advancing quickly whereas remaining rooted in conventional supplies and strategies.
“The Household” seems to be like a monotype executed on an etching plate. Whereas the summary “Solar Face” and “Portrait of Crimson Grooms” have been each rendered with seen brushstrokes in buttery paint, “Wilting Flower (The Rose)” is thinly painted, depicting an almost featureless girl sitting in a darkened, lamplit room and holding a small abstracted pink flower between her arms. As completely different as these works are, there appears to be no hesitation or wrestle in Thompson’s dealing with of the supplies. He was not trying a lot as consistently discovering methods to increase his aesthetic vary. In 1959, the 21-year-old Thompson informed his hometown newspaper, The Louisville Gazette: “I can not discover a place nor class through which to place my work nor a reputation to name them.”
Thompson’s want for creative autonomy distinguishes him from a lot of his contemporaries. For all the eye he has acquired since his loss of life, there’s a lot we will nonetheless study from his defiance. Born into segregation, he didn’t wish to assimilate into his surrounding world or be a spokesperson for Black tradition by his artwork. The figures in numerous colours that occupy his bigger works (none of that are on this exhibition) recommend a want for coexistence somewhat than integration.
By gathering these artists collectively, the exhibition proposes that Thompson was a catalyst for the loosely allied group of largely White artists who had migrated to Provincetown to seek out their very own measure of private and creative freedom. {That a} younger Black artist was on the middle of this group is one thing to be explored additional, in addition to extensively celebrated, by a deeper and extra in depth present. Nonetheless, this present is a optimistic seedling.
I’m Myself: Early Works by Bob Thompson and Mates continues at Steven Harvey Superb Artwork Initiatives (208 Forsyth Avenue, Decrease East Facet, Manhattan) by December 7. The exhibition was organized by the gallery.