the Cooper Union School of Art Interdisciplinary Seminar
Video
Robert Farris Thompson
An Aesthetic of the Cool: The Life and Art of an African sculptress
This lecture took place on January 25th, 2010 at 6:30 pm in the Wollman Auditorium at the Cooper Union
Lecture introduction
About Robert Farris Thompson
Robert Farris Thompson is one of America’s most accomplished art historians of Afro-Atlantic culture. He is Col John Trumbull Professor of African and Afro-American Art at Yale University where he is also master of the Timothy Dwight College, the longest reigning master in the history of the institution. Thompson has written across a vast array of subjects and areas concerning the history of Afro-Atlantic art, notably Black Gods and Kings (1971), African Art in Motion (1974), Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro American Art and Philosophy (1983), Tango: The Art History of Love (2006) and Aesthetic of the Cool (2009). Thompson’s articles have been anthologized in more than fourteen books and he has designed and organized major exhibitions of African and Afro-American art including “Face of the Gods: Art and Altars of Africa and the African Americas” (Museum for African Art). His other interests include Angol Martial Arts and NFL Football.