Bob Thompson: So let us all be citizens
52 Walker is pleased to announce its seventh exhibition So let us all be citizens, which will feature a range of paintings by Bob Thompson (1937–1966). The works on view spotlight the artist’s jazz-influenced style and how he used this method to engage new audiences within the history of painting. Looking at his particular consideration for color, line, and figuration—developed during a period when abstraction was the dominant trend in American art—this intimate exhibition pays homage to the friction Thompson generated between his proximity to and deviation from cited and canonical sources. The show’s title is taken from a speech that Thompson gave at a church as a teenager, “Building through Citizenship.” Forecasting the artist’s passion for the tenets of freedom and expression, the phrase “So let us all be citizens” encapsulates the power of Thompson’s work to widen the scope of what is imaginable in contemporary painting and for whom.
Bob Thompson: So let us all be citizens is curated by Ebony L. Haynes and presented by 52 Walker. A companion group exhibition, So let us all be citizens too, which considers Thompson’s influence on both his contemporaries and subsequent generations of artists, will be on view concurrently at David Zwirner London. Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, which represents the estate of the artist, will also have a Bob Thompson solo exhibition in New York that opens on April 1, 2023.
Image: Bob Thompson, An Allegory, 1964 (detail). Oil on linen, 48 × 48 in. (121.9 × 121.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Thomas Bellinger 72.137 © Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY