?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 30,000 - $ 40,000
BOB THOMPSON (1937 - 1966) Tree God.
Oil on wood panel, 1960. 187x546 mm; 7 3/8x21 1/2 inches. Signed, titled and dated in oil, verso.
Provenance: private collection, New York, acquired from Sotheby's New York, April 4, 2008.
This fascinating painting on wood is related to a number of similar horizontal scenes painted by Bob Thompson in 1960. Thompson created compositions set in a mythological paradise or Garden of Eden, including his dark hatted figures, classical nudes and over-sized demigods. His monumental Garden of Muse, 1960, in the collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum is the best known example of these scenes.
This early painting dates from the artist's second year in New York after leaving Provincetown. Thompson moved to Greenwich Village, finding a studio on Clinton Street in 1959, and soon became part of the downtown art scene. There he reconnected with his close knit group of Provincetown artist friends. In 1960, he had his first solo exhibition in New York at the Delancey Street Museum, founded by Red Grooms, and a two-person exhibition with Jay Milder at the Zabriskie Gallery. In December, he married Carol Plenda whom he had also met in Provincetown.
