Robert Farris Thompson, the Colonel John Trumbull Professor of the History of Art, has been named the College Art Association’s 2015 Distinguished Scholar. He will be honored during a special session of the association’s annual conference in February.
Thompson has devoted his life to the study of the art history of the Afro-Atlantic world. He has published texts on the structure and meaning of African dance, including the book “African Art in Motion,” and a reader on the art history of the Black Americas, “Flash of the Spirit,” which has remained in print since its publication in 1983. In addition, he has published an introduction to the diaries of Keith Haring, studies the art of José Bedia and Guillermo Kuitca, and has been anthologized fifteen times. A number of his works have been translated into French, German, Flemish, and Portuguese.
Founded in 1911, the College Art Association promotes excellence in scholarship and teaching in the history and criticism of the visual arts and in creativity and technical skill in the teaching and practices of art. Over 12,000 artists, art historians, scholars, curators, critics, collectors, educators, publishers, and other professionals in the visual arts belong as individual members. Another 2,000 departments of art and art history in colleges and universities, art schools, museums, libraries, and professional and commercial organizations hold institutional memberships.
