Robert Farris Thompson (December 30, 1932 – November 29, 2021) was an American art historian and writer who specialized in Africa and the Afro-Atlantic world. He was a member of the faculty at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

from 1965 to his retirement more than fifty years later and served as the Colonel John Trumbull Professor of the

History of Art The history of art focuses on objects made by humans for any number of spiritual, narrative, philosophical, symbolic, conceptual, documentary, decorative, and even functional and other purposes, but with a primary emphasis on its aesthetic vis ...

. Thompson coined the term "black Atlantic" in his 1983 book ''Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy'' – the expanded subject of Paul Gilroy's book ''

The Black Atlantic ''The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness'' is a 1993 history book about a distinct black Atlantic culture that incorporated elements from African, American, British, and Caribbean cultures. It was written by Paul Gilroy and was ...

''. He lived in the

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

region of southwest

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

while he conducted his research of Yoruba arts history. He was affiliated with the

University of Ibadan The University of Ibadan (UI) is a public research university in Ibadan, Nigeria. The university was founded in 1948 as University College Ibadan, one of many colleges within the University of London. It became an independent university in 196 ...

and frequented Yoruba village communities. Thompson studied the African arts of the diaspora in the United States, Mexico, Argentina, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and several Caribbean islands.

Career at Yale

In 1955, Thompson received his B.A. from Yale University. After receiving his bachelor's degree and serving in the 7th Army in Stuttgart, he continued his studies at Yale, where he received his Master's degree in 1961 and his Ph.D. in 1965. He was the first Yale professor and second person in the United States (the first being Roy Sieber at the University of Iowa in 1956) to receive a professorship in African Art history. Having served as Master of

Timothy Dwight College Timothy Dwight College, commonly abbreviated and referred to as "TD", is a residential college at Yale University named after two presidents of Yale, Timothy Dwight IV and his grandson, Timothy Dwight V. The college was designed in 1935 by James ...

from 1978 until 2010, he was the longest serving master of a residential college at Yale. Thompson was one of America's most prominent scholars of

African art African art describes the modern and historical paintings, sculptures, installations, and other visual culture from native or indigenous Africans and the African continent. The definition may also include the art of the African diasporas, su ...

, and presided over exhibitions of African art at the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

in Washington D.C. He was one of the longest-serving alumni of Yale.

Publications and areas of study

Beginning with an article on Afro-Cuban dance and music (published in 1958), Thompson dedicated his life to the study of art history of the Afro-Atlantic world. His first book was ''Black Gods and Kings'', which was a close reading of the art history of the Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria (population of approximately 40 million). Other published works include ''African Art in Motion, Flash of the Spirit'' (1983), ''Face of the Gods'', and ''Tango: The Art History of Love.'' Thompson also published an introduction to the diaries of

Keith Haring Keith Allen Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) was an American artist whose pop art emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. His animated imagery has "become a widely recognized visual language". Much of his wor ...

. Some of his works have even been translated into German, Portuguese, French and Flemish. Additionally, Thompson also studied the art of

Guillermo Kuitca Guillermo Kuitca (born 1961 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine artist, who continues to work and live in Buenos Aires. Kuitca's work has been shown extensively around the globe, and is included in many important public collections, including The T ...

and José Bedia, and was anthologized 15 times.

Awards

The

College Art Association The College Art Association of America (CAA) is the principal organization in the United States for professionals in the visual arts, from students to art historians to emeritus faculty. Founded in 1911, it "promotes these arts and their understa ...

presented its inaugural Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for Art Writing to Thompson in 2003, and was named CAA's Distinguished Scholar in 2015. In 2007, Thompson was given the "Outstanding Contribution to Dance Research" award, by the

Congress on Research in Dance Congress on Research in Dance was a professional organization for dance historians in the United States and worldwide that was founded in 1964 and then merged in 2017 with the Society of Dance History Scholars to form the Dance Studies Associati ...

br>

Personal life and death

Thompson was born in

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...

. He spoke French, Italian,

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

, and Spanish fluently and could speak

, Ki-Kongo and Creole at an intermediate level. He has been to nearly all 47 countries of Africa and is survived by a sister, two children, four grandchildren and a great granddaughter. Thompson died from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

-complicated

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

on November 29, 2021, at a nursing home in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

. He was 88.

Bibliography

*1971 ''Black Gods and Kings: Yoruba Art at UCLA'' *1974 ''African Art in Motion: Icon and Act in the Collection of Katharine Coryton White'' *1981 ''The Four Moments of the Sun: Kongo Art in Two Worlds'' *1983 ''Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy'' *1993 ''Face of the Gods: Art and Altars of Africa and the African Americas'' *1999 ''The Art of William Edmondon'' *2005 ''Tango: The Art History of Love'' *2011 ''Aesthetic of the Cool: Afro-Atlantic Art and Music''

References

External links

Portrait page
at Timothy Dwight College