COVER ARTIST: BOB THOMPSON

Colby Musuem of Art presented “Bob Thompson: This House Is Mine” from July 20, 2021 to January 9, 2022. “This House Is Mine” traces the artist’s brief but prolific transatlantic career, examining his formal inventiveness and his engagement with universal themes of collectivity, bearing witness, struggle, and justice. Over a mere eight years, he grappled with the exclusionary Western canon, developing a lexicon of enigmatic forms that he threaded through his work.

Thompson (1937–1966) had a knack for keeping everyone on the edge of their seats. Throughout the exhibition, it becomes clear that he moved fast, that in the moment, most could not keep up. After leaving Louisville University in 1958, he was relentless, finishing over 1,000 paintings before passing on at the age of 28.

Thompson settled in New York City, where he joined fellow artists Allan Kaprow and Red Grooms in some of their first so-called “Happenings,” multimedia performance events. A devotee of jazz, Thompson frequented downtown clubs such as Slugs’ Saloon and the Five Spot Café, where legendary performers including Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, and Charlie Haden played. These musicians materialize in many of Thompson’s paintings and drawings including “Ornette” (Birmingham Museum of Art, 1960–61) and “Garden of Music” (Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 1960). This pivotal period was marked by Thompson’s first solo New York City exhibition, and within the next few years his work entered some of the pre-eminent modern art collections in the United States.

The cover art, “The Judgement of Paris,” is a story from Greek mythology, which was one of the events that led up to the Trojan War. Eris, the goddess of discord, was not invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. In revenge, Eris brought a golden apple, inscribed, “To the fairest one,” which she threw into the wedding. Three goddesses, Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, agreed to have Paris of Troy choose the fairest one. Paris chose Aphrodite, because she bribed him by giving him the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta, wife of Menelaus. Paris carried Helen off to Troy, and the Greeks invaded Troy for Helen’s return.

Contemporary Jewelry

Maps, Circulation & Extra Copies

Maine Gallery + Studio Guide is organized by color-coded regions and towns, traveling up the coast of Maine. Town maps appearing in each region are indicated on the state map below to show relational distances and locations. Advertising museums, galleries and artists’ studios are listed in each region’s town directory with the page number of their ad and/or listing. They are also identified on their respective town maps. An Advertisers’ Index appears on pages 148 and 149.

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