Bob Thompson (painter)

Bob Thompson
Bob Thompson in the garden of the Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, 1965
Born	Robert Louis Thompson (1937-06-26)June 26, 1937 Louisville, Kentucky, United States
Died	May 30, 1966 Rome, Italy
Occupation	Figurative painter

Bob Thompson (June 26, 1937 – May 30, 1966) was an African-American figurative painter known for his bold and colorful canvases, whose compositions were appropriated from the Old Masters. His art has also been described as synthesizing Baroque and Renaissance masterpieces with the jazz-influenced Abstract Expressionist movement.

He was prolific in his eight-year career, producing more than 1,000 works before his death in Rome, Italy, in 1966. The Whitney Museum in New York City mounted a retrospective of his work in 1998. He also has works in numerous private and public collections throughout the United States.

Robert Louis Thompson was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. His father died in a car crash when he was 13, and Thompson lived with relatives who exposed him to art and jazz. He was briefly a pre-med student at Boston University (1955–56) but dropped out and returned to the University of Louisville (1957–58), where he studied painting under German expressionist artist Ulfert Wilke.

In 1958 he moved to New York City, where he formed friendships with jazz musicians such as Charlie Haden and Ornette Coleman while a regular at the jazz clubs "The Five Spot" and "Slugs". He also formed friendships with writers Allen Ginsberg and LeRoi Jones in addition to fellow artists Lester Johnson, Red Grooms, Mimi Gross, and Allan Kaprow, with whom he participated in some of the earliest Happenings. In 1960, he had his first solo exhibition at the Delancy Street Museum and later at the Martha Jackson Gallery where he had solo exhibitions in 1963–64, and 1965.