Robert Farris Thompson is an American historian and writer specialising in the art of Africa and the Afro-Atlantic world. He has been a member of the faculty at Yale University since 1965 and currently serves as the Colonel John Trumbull Professor of the History of Art. Thompson coined the term "black Atlantic" in his 1983 book Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy - the expanded subject of Paul Gilroy's book The Black Atlantic. He lived in the Yoruba region of southwest Nigeria for many years while he conducted his research of Yoruba arts history. He is affiliated with the University of Ibadan and frequented Yoruba village communities. Thompson has studied the African arts of the diaspora in the United States, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and several Caribbean islands. Robert Farris Thompson is also an authority on hip-hop culture.
Career at Yale
In 1955, Thompson received his B.A. from Yale University. After receiving his bachelor's degree, he continued his studies at Yale, where he received his Masters in 1961 and his Ph.D in 1965. Having served as Master of Timothy Dwight College from 1978 until 2010, he was the longest serving master of a residential college at Yale. Thompson is one of America's most prominent scholars of African art, and has presided over exhibitions of African art at the National Gallery in Washington D. C.. He is one of the longest-serving alumni of Yale.
Publications and areas of study
Beginning with an article on Afro-Cuban dance and music, Thompson has dedicated his life to the study of art history of the Afro-Atlantic world. His first book was Black Gods and Kings, which was a close reading of the art history of the Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria. Other published works include- African Art in Motion, Flash of the Spirit, Face of the Gods, and Tango: The ArtHistory of Love. Thompson also published an introduction to the diaries of Keith Haring. Some of his works have even been translated into German, Portuguese, French and Flemish. Additionally, Thompson also studies the art of Guillermo Kuitca and José Bedia, and has been anthologized 15 times.
Awards
In 2007, Thompson was given the "Outstanding Contribution to Dance Research" award, by the Congress on Research in Dance.
Personal life
Professor Thompson is an active gym goer. He speaks fluently in four languages which include French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish and can speak intermediately in Yoruba, Ki-Kongo and Creole. He has been to nearly all 47 countries of Africa and has a sister, two children and four grandchildren.
