Bob Thompson in The New Yorker

In an article that examines the materials and methods of artist Bob Thompson, The New Yorker writer Jackson Arn names the current Michael Rosenfeld Gallery exhibition Bob Thompson: Agony & Ecstasy  a must-see. Arn writes:

"There is no exact word for what Thompson does with the Old Masters. His paintings—the subject of 'Bob Thompson: Agony & Ecstasy,' the unmissable show at Rosenfeld, and another, 'Bob Thompson: So Let Us All Be Citizens,' at 52 Walker—contain hundreds of motifs snatched from the Western canon, wedged into dense compositions, and coated in bright colors. The results are too calm for parody and too self-secure for homage. Stanley Crouch thought that Thompson, a jazz fanatic, improvised on European art the way a saxophonist improvises on standards, but even that seems a notch too reverent. He doesn’t riff on masterpieces so much as rifle through them, grabbing a handful of Goya or Tintoretto as though reaching for the cadmium yellow."

Visit Michael Rosenfeld Gallery to experience Bob Thompson: Agony & Ecstasy, on view through May 26, 2023. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 6pm.

View installation images and the full exhibition checklist here.

Read the article