Yale Bulletin and Calendar

February 28, 2003|Volume 31, Number 20

Robert Farris Thompson

Thompson cited for work on
African and Afro-American art

The College Art Association (CAA) has awarded its first Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing on Art to Robert Farris Thompson, the Colonel John Trumbull Professor of the History of Art and master of Timothy Dwight College.

Thompson received the honor at the CAA's 91st annual Convocation, which was held Feb. 19-22 in New York City.

The newly established award celebrates the career of an author who, among other distinctions, has demonstrated particular commitment to his or her work throughout a long career and has had an impact nationally and internationally on the field. Scholars were nominated by their colleagues for the award.

"This scholar's colleagues in African art describe him as having quite literally transformed the fields of both African and African diaspora art history," said the CAA's award citation.

According to the citation, one colleague praised Thompson as "a brilliant thinker, tireless researcher, spellbinding lecturer and writer of almost velvet prose." Another colleague wrote: "Rarely does one read his work without finding at least one major nugget that transforms one's way of thinking. ... In an era when much of the scholarship on African art was being shaped by dry and largely outmoded anthropological functionalism, he pressed for a consideration of individual artists, ideas, visual sources and influence."

The citation also noted that Thompson has "profoundly influenced scholars in many fields beyond those working just on the arts of African and the black Atlantic" and that numerous visual artists have been influenced by his work. "A senior colleague in Asian studies summed it up well," concluded the citation, "describing him as 'a towering figure in the history of art, whose voice for diversity and cultural openness has made him a public intellectual of resounding importance.'"

A member of the Yale faculty since 1965, Thompson is a leading authority on African and Afro-American art and music. He has written on the visual traditions of West and Central Africans and African-influenced sectors of the New World, and he has organized major exhibitions at such venues as the National Gallery of Art and the University of California at Los Angeles.

He is the author of eight books and catalogues, including "Black Gods and Kings: Yorubu Art at UCLA," "African Art in Motion: Icon and Act in the Collection of Katharine Coryton White," "Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy" and "Face of the Gods: Art and Altars of Africa and the African Americas." He has also written articles for publications ranging from scholarly journals to The Village Voice and the Saturday Review.

Thompson teaches two of the most popular courses at Yale: "From West Africa to the Black Americas: The Black Atlantic Visual Tradition" and "New York Mambo: Microcosm of Black Creativity." The latter annually brings classes of students onto Old Campus to practice African-influenced dance and martial arts.

As master of Timothy Dwight College since 1978, Thompson is the longest-serving of any current residential college master. At the college, he heads the Chubb Fellowship, which has brought to campus numerous world and national leaders, as well as such famed Latin performers as Tito Puente and Eddie Palmieri.

Thompson has received research grants from the Ford Foundation, the National Institute of Medicine and Science, the National Institute of the Museums of Zaire and the National Gallery of Art, among others. His professional activities include serving on the Joint Committee on African Studies of the Social Science Research Council and American Council of Learned Societies, and chairing the Humanities Committee of the African Studies Association.

He holds three degrees from Yale -- a B.A. (1955), M.A. (1961) and Ph.D. (1965).

Founded in 1911, the College Art Association promotes excellence in scholarship and teaching in the history and criticism of the visual arts and in creativity and technical skill in the teaching and practices of art, and facilitates the exchange of ideas and information among those interested in art and the history of art.

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