NEW YORK (January 4, 2024) – Against the current of abstract painting and the simplification of forms employed by modernists, throughout his career, Aaron Bohrod remained true to himself as a realist. He once said “I have never been frightened by the bogey of detail. When detail is integrated into a total scheme, it can only serve to enrich the result…in any good painting there is plenty for sensitive people to ponder without asking them to complete, mentally, the artist’s intentions about form.”
A student of John Sloan at the Art Students League in New York, by the 1930s, Aaron Bohrod was nationally known for his social realist cityscapes of the Midwest. Coined as “America’s number 1 painter of neon lights,” Dealers urged Bohrod to paint more urban nocturnes, but Bohrod felt pigeon-holed and pivoted to trompe l’oeil still lifes of bric-a-brac. Although one would expect the work of an artist who matured during the Great Depression and was hired to document World War II by Life Magazine to be dark and dreary, Bohrod’s still lifes are playful and adventurous.
Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in painting in 1936 (the same year as fellow magic realist Peter Blume was a recipient), Bohrod later accepted a position as artist in residence, succeeding John Steuart Curry, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and remained in that capacity until 1973. In the 1950s, Bohrod developed the trompe-l'œil style of highly realistic, detailed still-life paintings which give an illusion of real life.
Chronologically before artists such as Richard Prince and Raymond Pettibon, who include the text of jokes in their work, Bohrod utilized symbolism and puns to convey his wittiness and vivacity on the gesso boards. Although these jokes are occasionally given away by the title of the painting, the objects in these works continue to play off each other and possess multiple meanings as in the tradition of Dutch Old Masters.
At his eulogy, Bohrod’s longtime dealer, Frank Oehlschlager, stated “Bohrod has a great sense of humor, but beneath it is a bite of the utmost seriousness—often a criticism of the folly and silliness of mankind, his actions and concerns, as exhibited by the faster and faster pace of an ever twisting stream—the spectacle of life."
The exhibition will run from January 18 - February 24 at 542 West 24th Street and the space will be open to visitors from 10am-6pm on Tuesdays-Saturdays. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, January 28th from 6-8pm.
About Lincoln Glenn Gallery
Lincoln Glenn, LLC was founded in 2022, with a mission to present American art from the 19th century through the late 20th century. With galleries on the Upper East Side and Chelsea, Lincoln Glenn exhibits works from artists of the Hudson River School, American Impressionism, Ashcan School, and American Modernism, with a particular focus on Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painting. Lincoln Glenn wishes to revive the legacies and explore the careers of artists working between the 1950s and 1970s who made significant contributions to art history, but whose names may have been forgotten by time.
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