Bill Thompson
For the past twenty-five years, Bill Thompson’s primary focus has been on the evocative power of color. As a painter with instinctual leanings toward Minimalism, the monochrome has served Thompson well as a format for color exploration. Though his approach has changed dramatically over the years, there has been a consistent fixation on the objectness of a painting. Early iterations included thick, textured paint applications on wood panels, followed by pristine rolled acrylic surfaces on plywood. In the late nineties, he began altering and carving the substrate itself in an attempt to further activate the color experience. Gradually Thompson abandoned the square and rectangular format altogether and in the process, emancipated the support from its geometric constraints. This allowed for a more physical embrace of color's expressive potential and in turn, forced a radical change in materials. The forms that Thompson has been creating for the past fifteen years are hand-carved from dense polyurethane blocks and then spray-coated with roughly twenty coats of automotive primer, custom-mixed color, and clear acrylic urethane. They are typically wall mounted and in some cases, grouped in constellations. Thompson embraces the ideal of natural beauty in his work and, like many artists, doesn’t consider himself …
For the past twenty-five years, Bill Thompson’s primary focus has been on the evocative power of color. As a painter with instinctual leanings toward Minimalism, the monochrome has served Thompson well as a format for color exploration. Though his approach has changed dramatically over the years, there has been a consistent fixation on the objectness of a painting. Early iterations included thick, textured paint applications on wood panels, followed by pristine rolled acrylic surfaces on plywood. In the late nineties, he began altering and carving the substrate itself in an attempt to further activate the color experience. Gradually Thompson abandoned the square and rectangular format altogether and in the process, emancipated the support from its geometric constraints. This allowed for a more physical embrace of color's expressive potential and in turn, forced a radical change in materials. The forms that Thompson has been creating for the past fifteen years are hand-carved from dense polyurethane blocks and then spray-coated with roughly twenty coats of automotive primer, custom-mixed color, and clear acrylic urethane. They are typically wall mounted and in some cases, grouped in constellations. Thompson embraces the ideal of natural beauty in his work and, like many artists, doesn’t consider himself to be aligned with any particular movement.
Thompson has had a number of solo exhibitions internationally including, but not limited to, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA, The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH, Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA, Portland, ME, Margaret Thatcher Projects, New York, NY, Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, MA, and Galería Miguel Marcos, Barcelona, ES. Group shows include Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA, Conny Dietzschold Gallery, Sydney, AU and Keitelman Gallery, Brussels, BE.
Courtesy of the Artist
Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH
Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
List Visual Art Center, M.I.T., Cambridge, MA
Marsh Art Gallery, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
New York Public Library, New York, NY
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA