I am Myself: Early Works by Bob Thompson and Friends at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects gathers works by a group of artists who Thompson first met in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in the summer of 1958. Thompson had arrived from Louisville, Kentucky, hoping to meet the artist Jan Müller, but Müller died before that was realized. The group included Emilio Cruz, Red Grooms, Mimi Gross, Bill Barrell, Jay Milder, and older artists Gandy Brodie and Lester Johnson.
The year that these artists met is significant: Jasper Johns had his first solo exhibition at Leo Castelli Gallery at the beginning of 1958. Johns’s show presented the era’s first real alternative to Abstract Expressionism, giving rise to Pop art and Minimalism, which dominated much of the art world’s attention for nearly two decades.
The current exhibition includes 21 pieces in different mediums by nine artists, as well as nine by Thompson. Although largely sidelined in art history, the work of these artists constitutes a major moment in American postwar painting for many reasons, notably its diversity — while many art groups receiving attention at the time were all White, this one included two Black artists, Thompson and Cruz, who was Cuban American.
Thompson touched many people in his short lifetime (he died at 28), which is something that this show touches upon. We see his influence in the saturated color of Bill Barrell’s painting “Summer Pleasures” (1967). His interest in figurative art overlapped with that of others in his group, all of whom were seeking alternatives to Abstract Expressionism. Their shared interest in drawing, painting, and figuration, along with earlier periods of art, from the Italian Renaissance to German Expressionism, sets them apart from the prevailing trends in New York.
Although many Provincetown artists would later settle in New York, they had already started down their individual paths and would never assimilate into the dominant movements that sprang up in New York around the same time. I think this separate evolutionary trail is central to understanding postwar American art.
A fearless, prolific, and protean artist from the start of his career, Thompson’s role in this is central, if not always obvious. He was able to absorb influences from both contemporary and historical artists without becoming derivative.“Sun Face,” “The Family,” and “Portrait of Red Grooms,” all made in Provincetown in 1958, and 1959’s “Wilting Flower (The Rose)” reveal an artist advancing rapidly while remaining rooted in traditional materials and methods.
“The Family” looks like a monotype done on an etching plate. While the abstract “Sun Face” and “Portrait of Red Grooms” were both rendered with visible brushstrokes in buttery paint, “Wilting Flower (The Rose)” is thinly painted, depicting a nearly featureless woman sitting in a darkened, lamplit room and holding a small abstracted red flower between her hands. As different as these works are, there seems to be no hesitation or struggle in Thompson’s handling of the materials. He was not looking so much as constantly finding ways to extend his aesthetic range. In 1959, the 21-year-old Thompson told his hometown newspaper, The Louisville Gazette: “I cannot find a place nor category in which to put my paintings nor a name to call them.”
Thompson’s desire for artistic autonomy distinguishes him from many of his contemporaries. For all the attention he has received since his death, there is much we can still learn from his defiance. Born into segregation, he did not want to assimilate into his surrounding world or be a spokesperson for Black culture through his art. The figures in various colors that occupy his larger works (none of which are in this exhibition) suggest a desire for coexistence rather than integration.
By gathering these artists together, the exhibition proposes that Thompson was a catalyst for the loosely allied group of mostly White artists who had migrated to Provincetown to find their own measure of personal and artistic freedom. That a young Black artist was at the center of this group is something to be explored further, as well as widely celebrated, by a deeper and more extensive show. However, this show is a positive seedling.
I am Myself: Early Works by Bob Thompson and Friends continues at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects (208 Forsyth Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan) through December 7. The exhibition was organized by the gallery.
