Flash of the Spirit: African & Afro-American Art & Philosophy

by Robert Farris Thompson

This landmark book shows how five African civilizations—Yoruba, Kongo, Ejagham, Mande and Cross River—have informed and are reflected in the aesthetic, social and metaphysical traditions (music, sculpture, textiles, architecture, religion, idiogrammatic writing) of black people in the United States, Cuba, Haiti, Trinidad, Mexico, Brazil and other places in the New World.

Genres: Art, Africa, History, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Philosophy, Art History

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Robert Farris Thompson is a professor of the Art History at Yale University. He specializes in African and African-American art.

Reviews

[Andrewhouston]

I was just watching a documentary on Jean-Michel Basquiat and he mentions this book as one of his favorites, and I remembered using for some research. The author Robert Thompson is even featured prominently in the documentary and had the best commentary of all the art talking heads. Great, Great book. I don't think I read it from front to back, but I would like to own this book so that I can.

[Brianna]

RFT is a key contributer to black art history, I mean he is cited everywhere. His arguments about Africanisms in African American material culture have become a staple in discussing black aesthetics. This book is a good entry into African art and black diasporic art, but it’s not the end of the story. Easy reading and tons of images, but not much criticality. Waiting for a black art historian to take up this subject and expand discussion 🤷🏿‍♀️ Well-written and researched.

[Stacey]

Fighting to combat racist notions, Thompson centers the book on documenting a proud and ancient heritage of the Africans and African-Americans. Thompson goes into extreme detail on the differences between art in Africa and the Americas. Examples of the similarity range in places from Cuba, Haiti, Brazil to Yoruba and Benin. Elaborating on the spiritual, Thompson sketches a picture of the complex approximation of Haitian vodun to the religion of Kongo, Dahomey and Yorubaland. Magnificently drawing out the religion of Haiti as a genus of it's own, Haitian history is examined to determine how the religion came to existence. Thompson alludes to the touch and enduring spirit of the Haitians in using the religion to overcome the oppression of the French and win the revolution, becoming the first black republic in the New World. Reading the book can be worthwhile for laymen or scholars, novice or professional and the free-styled or the inquisitive. The limitations of the book were few and far between.

[Tristy]

I just watched the documentary "Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child" and he mentions this book as being one of the best books he's ever read. This is a really stellar book and I have yet to see anyone approach the topic of African/Afro-American Art in the same way since.

[Benjamin Fasching-Gray]

"Mind blown!" I said out loud a few times while reading this. Richly detailed. This is a foundational text; I've seen it cited in so many of the books I've read, and most recently I saw at a Basquiat exhibition that he was a big fan of this book too.

[Marcus]

I came late to this party but it lives up to its reputation and has influenced my understanding of the African diaspora in many ways

[Jeremy MBU]

and introduction to originally visual language of several African tribes.

[Jamie]

A wonderful dive into African Spirituality and its retentions in the Americas.

[Yasmine F-A]

I don’t have much exposure to art history, but I really enjoyed this book.

[Michael B.]

When I was in my thirties I carried this book around with me as if it were a bible. If you want to understand cultural resiliancy, check out how traditions and philosophy may have survived crossing the Atlantic in slave ships. If we want to understand art, both the appreciation of and the making of, it is a good idea to study it in a specific cultural context. Some of the western traditions are so contested it is difficult to pick a side. Examine a tradition that is not your own and you might be surprised at how much there is to learn. If you believe we make art so that we may survive, who better to study from?

[Devoney Ellis]

I didn’t know what to expect from this book but I am pleasantly surprised, it’s incredibly well researched and the amount of work put into unpacking racist assumptions about Africa is *chefs kiss*. This whole book works to dismantle three Eurocentric ideas 1) that Africa wasn’t “civilized,” 2) that there wasn’t “sophisticated” culture which they “proved” with thinking 3) there wasn’t a written language. Mans successfully chucked all three ideas in the trash where they belong. So yeah, worth the read.

[A]

This book made me feel like I was Jared, 19 and did not know how to read lol

[The Power Plant]

Book selected as part of Fall 2020 Reading Room, for the exhibition "Manuel Mathieu: World Discovered Under Other Skies"

[Richard]

Great book. Gave a good explanation of candomble, macumba and voudou, its origins and artistic side.

[Peter Landau]

Jean-Michel Basquiat favorite living art historian.

[Jalen]

Wordy, got lost in it a lot

Some of these tokens will stay with me forever, grateful to have learned about the shoulders I stand on

[TomsReaditAll]

Comprehensive and easy to follow. Revolutionary!

[Andrea Ramos-Rodriguez]

3.5

[Erin]

This book was really dense. Shined when talking about Henry Dorsey though.

[Katie]

Thompson walks a thin line in trying to make complex cultural practices understandable for outsiders without oversimplifying. And he succeeds: his study is enlightening, though at times his scholarly precision turns cumbersome (mostly in chapter five). I would have given it five stars if the images were in color--some are so dark I can barely tell what they are. Color is so crucial in the artistic traditions discussed in this book; the publisher should have sprung for a few color pages.

[Kevin Cooney]

Very helpful book that illuminates the sources for the Black Atlantic component of American art. I first learned about the book from an interview with Basquiat. Usually, when you read about him he is compared to established European and American painters, but the book shows the resilience of west African visual patterns and symbols in vernacular culture.

[Hans Ostrom]

One of the very best books about African aesthetics and philosophy and how they affected African American culture. Superbly researched but also accessible. Enormously valuable to art historians, literary scholars, African American Studies scholars, anyone interested in Black culture and African cultures, and general readers. Enthusiastically recommended.

[Daniel]

perked interest ritual, sacrifice, "pantheism," and nonwestern religious practices ... and noneastern religious practices, for that matter. this book's intersection with artmaking was highly influential for me... and still has been, after all these years...

[Kurt]

My enlightenment.

[Lori]

This defined the new way of perceiving African Art and it is time I got around to reading it cover to cover.

[Diane Dunham]

has really good photos of artifacts