Renowned Yale Art Historian Dr. Robert Farris Thompson to Speak at Plymouth State University: Lecture will explore connections between Reggae music and painting
PLYMOUTH-Yale University art history professor Dr. Robert Farris Thompson will give a talk Wednesday April 27 on Jamaican artist Kofi Kayiga, whose work was recently exhibited in the Karl Drerup Art Gallery. Thompson, whose lecture is entitled “Reggae in Paint: Jamaican Consciousness and the Art of Kofi Kayiga,” is a renowned expert in African and African American art. During his 34-year career at Yale, Thompson’s research has spanned from Yoruba sculpture and West African dance to the Vodun art of Haiti. The paintings and pastel drawings of Kofi Kayiga, a Jamaican-born artist whose work focuses on explorations of the spiritual, were exhibited alongside the work of fellow Jamaican-native Winsom this winter in a show called Kindred Spirits: Kayiga and Winsom. Kayiga is currently a professor of painting at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. Thompson’s talk will explore the variety of social, cultural, political and spiritual influences on Jamaican art and music, particularly Reggae. He will also give an in-depth analysis of one of Kayiga’s greatest masterpieces, Ras Queen. Thompson’s lecture will be held on April 27 at 4 p.m. in Heritage Commons, located on the ground floor of Hall Residence Hall on the Plymouth State University campus.