"Homage to Nina Simone"

"Homage to Nina Simone"

Nina Simone
Jazz Singer/Musician
African American Expressionist Art

A year before his death at age twenty-eight, the African-American artist Bob Thompson painted this tribute to the jazz musician Nina Simone. The brightly colored silhouettes bounded by sinuous contours recall the work of the early 20th-century French painter Henri Matisse. Like Matisse, Thompson created idyllic landscapes containing relaxed nude figures. Here, the simplified interrelated forms suggest the rhythms and energy of Simone's music.

While living in Europe Thompson frequented museums, and he often based his compositions and themes on those of the old masters. Homage is a variation on Nicolas Poussin's Bacchanal with Lute-Player of about 1630, which Thompson had studied at the Louvre, in Paris. Credit:

Artist: Bob Thompson

Contemporary Art

(MIA) Minneapolis Institute of Art

20th century: 1965

Researched by kYmberly Keeton

© Estate of Bob Thompson, Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY | Non-Commercial Use

Credit: The John R. Van Derlip Fund

Oil on Canvas
48 x 72 1/8 in. (121.92 x 183.2 cm) (sight)
50 1/8 x 74 1/8 x 2 1/4 in. (127.32 x 188.28 x 5.72 cm) (outer frame)

English

Painting

Accession Number: 89.83

Wikipedia:
{{cite web |title=Homage to Nina Simone |url=https://collections.artsmia.org/art/3885 |author=Artist: Bob Thompson |year=1965 |accessdate=11 Nov 2017 |publisher=Minneapolis Institute of Art}}

Painting

48 x 72 1/8 in. (121.92 x 183.2 cm) (sight)
50 1/8 x 74 1/8 x 2 1/4 in. (127.32 x 188.28 x 5.72 cm) (outer frame)