CEWS Profile: Robert Farris Thompson

Professor Thompson has taught at Yale since 1961 and has served as visiting curator at UCLA’s Museum of Ethnic Arts and at the National Gallery of Art.  He has organized several major exhibitions including The Four Moments of the Sun and The Face of the Gods: Shrines and Altars of the Black Atlantic World at the National Gallery of Art.  Professor Thompson has received research grants from the Ford Foundation, the Yale Concilium on International and Area Studies, the National Institute of Medicine and Science, the National Institute of the Museums of Zaire, and the National Gallery of Art. Prof. Thompson is the author of Black Gods and Kings: Yoruba Art at UCLA; African Art in Motion; Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy; Face of the Gods: Art and Altars of Africa and the African Americas; The Four Moments of the Sun: Kongo Art in Two Worlds.  He has co-authored and contributed to others including Mbuti Design: Paintings by Pygmy Women from the Ituri Forest and Blues for New Orleans: Mardi Gras and America’s Creole Soul, 2006.