1977

JIM THOMPSON
1977
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JIM THOMPSON
1977
Henry Geldzahler famously said of Andy Warhol’s work that “people have a longing to see the familiar codified in
some way.” This is among the truest things uttered about how fine art works, in particular how Pop Art works. Pop
established an inexhaustible image system from within which artists can draw new subject territory. It will never
go away. Pop is constantly replenishing itself and reflecting the new, which is in stark contrast to the desperate, recursive exhaustion of formalist painting as it looks for fresh perspectives on canvas though gesture line
and color.
Painting provides an intepretable and pleasurable visual structure that serves as a delivery vehicle for ideas.
Painting for painting’s sake is for me an effete pleasure akin to wine tasting that owes its survival to the
utility of art as decoration and the absence of footholds necessary to support legitimate intellectual inspection. I recoil from the refrain “the work is about what painting can do” that so often attends discussion of contemporary abstract work. While I acknowledge that one of the fundamental utilities of art is to afford viewers a
peaceable remove from the world – a space for intellectual contemplation – I find art’s fundamental utility to be
the illumination of life and of the world, and that meaning is no enemy to contemplation.
I did not study art in college or in graduate school. I did study literature, aesthetic theory, and literary theory in both. The only theory or definition of Art that I studied that could not be disproved in some way was the
Institutional Theory (Dickey & Danto), a tautology that claims Art is what the Art World says it is, evidenced by
Duchamp and Warhol, etc. My practice looks to objects, images and narratives that function in every way like art
while remaining outside of what art is deemed to be solely as a result of their context. I champion miscegenation
amongst design elements, entertainment, and art. I also embrace an Emotionalist (Tolstoy) position on art. Movies, music and television have conditioned in me a heightened sensitivity to the evocative. I like to moved and
to be communicated with. I have no reluctance in declaiming that this is chiefly what art is and has been for, at
the end of the day.
I am fascinated by the indelibility of impressions formed during childhood and adolescence. It is my intention to
excavate these most durable memories and document them through painting and sculpture, and to examine their recontextualized form. My practice is therefore experimental in nature. The first series of images I have produced
are the baseball card paintings, all taken from the year 1977, all from the card publisher Topps. The paintings
intend to be faithful to the cards in both size and image, any changes to the look of the original cards are the
result of happenstance or error. The selection of 1977 as the source year for the card paintings resulted from
personal memory (1977 was the year I actually collected baseball cards) and excellence in graphic design, which
contributed in no small way to the durability of the memories I suspect. The card paintings intend to be evocative, and I suppose that creating a state of thoughtful reverie is their clearest intention. The card paintings
surface ways in which male heroism is coded, and by virtue of their age they show the changing face of male heroism and male beauty. Like all pillars of memory, the card paintings summon not only the ‘then’ and its Proustian
swirl of associations, but the gulf of time between the ‘then’ and the ‘now.’ They are about aging in a narrow
authorial sense (my aging.) They are about value. They are about the men themselves, and their exploits. They are
about what painting can do.
JIM THOMPSON
1977
77 Dave Lopes, oil and ink on canvas, 3.75 x 2.75
inches, 2013
77 Burt Hooton, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Bucky Dent, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Sixto Lezcano, oil
and ink on canvas, 3.75
x 2.75 inches, 2013
77 Bob Boone, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
JIM THOMPSON
1977
77 Steve Garvey, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Fred Lynn, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Willie Randolph, oil
and ink on canvas, 3.75
x 2.75 inches, 2013
77 Dave Concepcion, oil
and ink on canvas, 3.75
x 2.75 inches, 2013
77 George Foster, oil
and ink on canvas, 3.75
x 2.75 inches, 2013
77 Steve Carlton, oil
and ink on canvas, 3.75
x 2.75 inches, 2013
77 Ron Cey, oil and ink
on canvas, 3.75 x 2.75
inches, 2013
77 Frank Tanana, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
JIM THOMPSON
1977
77 Eddie Murray, oil and ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Darrell Porter, oil and ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
JIM THOMPSON
1977
77 Freddie Patek, oil
and ink on canvas, 3.75
x 2.75 inches, 2013
77 John Montefusco, oil
and ink on canvas, 3.75
x 2.75 inches, 2013
77 Joe Morgan, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Ron Guidry, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Rick Burleson, oil
and ink on canvas, 3.75
x 2.75 inches, 2013
77 Graig Nettles, oil
and ink on canvas, 3.75
x 2.75 inches, 2013
77 Manny Ganguillen, oil
and ink on canvas, 3.75
x 2.75 inches, 2013
77 Bob Ghich, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
JIM THOMPSON
1977
77 Doug DeCinces, oil and ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Hal McRae, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Reggie Jackson, oil
and ink on canvas, 3.75
x 2.75 inches, 2013
77 Rico Carty, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Steve Yeager, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
JIM THOMPSON
1977
77 Bill Russell, oil and ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Thurman Munson, oil and ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
JIM THOMPSON
1977
77 Don Sutton, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Jerry Remy, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Mike Schmidt, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Ron LeFlore, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Reggie Smith, oil and ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
JIM THOMPSON
1977
77 Johnny Bench, oil and ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Nolan Ryan, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Rico Petrocelli, oil
and ink on canvas, 3.75
x 2.75 inches, 2013
77 Dock Ellis, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Greg Luzinski, oil
and ink on canvas, 3.75
x 2.75 inches, 2013
JIM THOMPSON
1977
77 Mickey Rivers, oil and ink on
canvas, 3.75 x 2.75 inches, 2013
77 Dusty Baker, oil and ink on canvas, 3.75 x 2.75 inches, 2013
77 Phil Niekro, oil and ink on canvas, 3.75 x 2.75 inches, 2013
JIM THOMPSON
1977
77 John Lowenstein, oil
and ink on canvas, 3.75
x 2.75 inches, 2013
77 Rick Monday, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Richie Zisk, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Cesar Geronimo, oil
and ink on canvas, 3.75
x 2.75 inches, 2013
77 Tommy John, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Carl Yastrzemski, oil
and ink on canvas, 3.75
x 2.75 inches, 2013
77 Mark Fidrych, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Amos Otis, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
JIM THOMPSON
1977
77 Luis Tiant, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Dave Kingman, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Jim Hunter, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Rich Gossage, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Rollie Fingers, oil and ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
JIM THOMPSON
1977
77 Mike Flanagan, oil and ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Ken Griffey, oil and ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
JIM THOMPSON
1977
77 Al Bumbry, oil and ink
on canvas, 3.75 x 2.75
inches, 2013
77 Don Gullett, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Ed Figueroa, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Garry Templeton, oil
and ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Gary Carter, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Sal Bando, oil and ink
on canvas, 3.75 x 2.75
inches, 2013
JIM THOMPSON
1977
77 Mike Torrez, oil and ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Mike Cubbage, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Toby Harrah, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Chris Chambliss, oil
and ink on canvas, 3.75
x 2.75 inches, 2013
77 Andy Messersmith, oil
and ink on canvas, 3.75
x 2.75 inches, 2013
JIM THOMPSON
1977
77 Rick Dempsey, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Paul Splittorff, oil
and ink on canvas, 3.75
x 2.75 inches, 2013
77 Oscar Gamble, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Mark Belanger, oil
and ink on canvas, 3.75
x 2.75 inches, 2013
77 Lou Piniella, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Larry Gura, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 George Scott, oil and
ink on canvas, 3.75 x
2.75 inches, 2013
77 Brooks Robinson, oil
and ink on canvas, 3.75
x 2.75 inches, 2013
JIM THOMPSON
1977
‘1977’ Installation at Charlie James Gallery, March 2013