Aaron Bohrod
Pittsburgh Alleyway
c. 1946

Name: Pittsburgh Alleyway
Brand: Aaron Bohrod
Price: 5000 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Pittsburgh Alleyway, c. 1946, oil on gouache on paper on “prestwood” (Masonite), 9 x 12 inches, signed lower middle, Bohrod’s original label verso from his gallery at 4811 Tonyawatha Trail, Madison Wisconsin 53716, includes title, dimensions, media and date About the Painting Pittsburgh Alleyway is an excellent example of Bohrod’s American Scene works from the 1940s when he depicted the ordinary lives of the common person (in this case children) in the otherwise forgotten and neglected neighborhoods of America’s Rust Belt. During the years between the World Wars, the American Scene genre had two major strains which co-existed, sometimes uncomfortably. The first type, called Regionalism, was rural, small-town oriented, nostalgic and to a large extent romantic. The second type, called Social Realism, was urban, gritty, more realistic and sometimes even menacing. Pittsburgh Alleyway falls within Social Realism. It reflects the considerable influence of the Ash Can School painter, John Sloan, who was one of Bohrod’s most influential instructors at the Art Students League in New York. Despite the bright palette, there is something unsettling about the image of two very young children playing alone in the alley while two large trees, one of which inexplicably emerges from between two buildings to the right side of the work, hover overhead. The torn circus posters only add to the unease. In many ways, Pittsburgh Alleyway gives us a subtle preview of Bohrod’s later more surrealist and magic realist works. About the Artist Aaron Bohrod was among the most famous American Scene painters working in the Midwest during the 1930s and 1940s. Later in the 1950s and beyond, Bohrod’s work took on a more surrealist or magical realist quality, particularly as he crafted small, meticulous trump l’oeil paintings. Born in 1907, Bohrod spent his adult life in Chicago and Madison, Wisconsin, where he took over the artist-in-residence position at the University of Wisconsin after the unexpected death of John Steuart Curry. Bohrod served as a war correspondent and artist for Life magazine and the US military during World War II. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League. His works were included in a large number of national exhibitions, including at the National Academy of Design (where was a National Academician), the Corcoran Gallery, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, the Golden Gate International Exposition, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) and the Art Institute of Chicago, where he won several significant awards (including the Logan Prize). During his long career, Bohrod was represented by several of the nation’s most prestigious galleries, including Frank Rehn, Milch and Associated American Artists, among others. His works are held in the permanent collections of dozens of museums across the country, and he is extensively listed in all standard references, including Who was Who in American Art.

Creator:

Aaron Bohrod (1907 - 1992, American)

Creation Year:

c. 1946

Dimensions:

Height: 12 in (30.48 cm)Width: 9 in (22.86 cm)Depth: 1 in (2.54 cm)

More Editions & Sizes:

16 x 13 x 1 inches (framed)Price: $5,000

Medium:

Mixed Media

Movement & Style:

American Modern

Period:

1940-1949

Condition:

Gallery Location:

Los Angeles, CA

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU1859210062542

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Aaron Bohrod

Aaron Bohrod's work has not been limited to one style or medium. Initially recognized as a regionalist painter of American scenes, particularly of his native Chicago, Bohrod later devoted himself to detailed still-life paintings rendered in the trompe l'oeil style. He also worked for several years in ceramics and wrote a book on pottery. Born in 1907, Bohrod began his studies at Chicago's Crane Junior College in 1925, and two years later enrolled in the Art Institute of Chicago. But it was at the Art Students League in New York City, from 1930 to 1932, that he studied under the man believed to be his most significant early influence, John Sloan. Sloan's romantic realism is reflected in the many depictions of Chicago life, which comprised most of Bohrod's early work. Under Sloan's tutelage, Bohrod came to subscribe to the belief that painters should find the subjects of their art in the immediate world around them. These paintings emphasized architecture unique to north Chicago and featured Chicagoans engaged in such everyday activities as working, playing or going to the theatre. The romantic aspect was conveyed by the use of misty colors, and the realism by attention to detail. In 1936, Bohrod won the Guggenheim Fellowship award in creative painting. It enabled him to travel the United States, producing similar regionalist paintings on a much broader range of subjects. Nevertheless, most of his early work centered on Chicago and the urban Midwest. In 1943, Bohrod was commissioned by editors of Life magazine to cover the battlefronts as a war correspondent and artist. Three years later, Bohrod was invited to become the Artist in Residence at the University of Wisconsin, a position that became vacant with the unexpected death of John Steuart Curry. He would remain at the University from 1948 to his retirement in 1973. Then, quite atypically, fantasy started to appear in his work. Elements of Surrealism, supposedly inspired by his concurrent involvement in ceramics with F. Carlton Ball, began influencing his landscapes. By 1953, Bohrod had completely ceased painting landscapes, turning instead to often symbolic still-life subjects. He abandoned his earlier romantic realism to paint in the luminous trompe l'oeil tradition of William Harnett. Bohrod continued to produce these meticulously crafted fantasies exclusively. While in his position at the University of Wisconsin, Bohrod painted covers for Time magazine and authored two books, A Pottery Sketch-book (1959) and A Decade of Still Life (1966), in which are produced many of his trompe l'oeil paintings.