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Bruce Cohen Art

American, b. 1953
Drawing on influences from Dutch seventeenth-century painting and Surrealism, Bruce Cohen’s oil paintings portray ethereal interior scenes constructed from amalgamations of real and invented spaces. Beginning with an observation of light, Cohen creates small color studies and graphite renderings of light and shadow before transitioning to a collaging process, where memories, observations, and invented details come together to construct dreamlike scenarios. Cohen's tightly rendered compositions take on a cinematic, three-dimensional atmosphere with his usage of a crisp, hard edge style and contrasting saturated colors. Cohen's paintings affect the viewer as though they are intimately, perhaps voyeuristically, peering into the interiors of one’s home. Household objects show signs of habitation, but a figure never emerges. One looks for the story behind the empty room where a chair bathes in the shadowed stillness of a setting sun, and the meaning of a bouquet of brightly lit tulips in an interior cloaked by the clouds of a departing storm. Paul Wonner, Cohen’s mentor, described Cohen’s scenes as “a place where some tremendous, mystical event has just taken place.” The longer one spends observing the placement of each object, the quality of light, the traces, and folds in the tablecloth, the more one grasps for its shrouded narrative. Filled with tension and beauty, Cohen's works are quietly harmonic—as meditative as they are mysterious. Born in Santa Monica, California in 1953, Bruce Cohen continues to live and work in Southern California. He earned his BA from the College of Creative Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1975. Cohen is represented in numerous public and private collections, including that of Phillip Morris, New York; Pacific Bell, Los Angeles; the San Diego Museum of Art; and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
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Interior with Daffodils and Blue Chair

Interior with Daffodils and Blue Chair

By Bruce Cohen

Located in San Francisco, CA

Bruce Cohen is known for engaging his viewers with intriguing interiors in his distinctive, crisp, realist style. Influenced by Dutch still-life painting and Surrealism he orchestrat...

Category

2010s Bruce Cohen Art

Materials

Pastel

Interior of Kitchen and View of the Ocean

Interior of Kitchen and View of the Ocean

By Bruce Cohen

Located in San Francisco, CA

Bruce Cohen is known for engaging his viewers with intriguing interiors in his distinctive, crisp, realist style. Influenced by Dutch still-life painting and Surrealism he orchestrat...

Category

2010s Bruce Cohen Art

Materials

Pastel

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Previously Available Items
Still Life with Calla Lilies in Pitcher

Still Life with Calla Lilies in Pitcher

By Bruce Cohen

Located in San Francisco, CA

Bruce Cohen Still Life with Calla Lilies in Pitcher, 2020 Oil on canvas 38 x 38 inches

Category

2010s Bruce Cohen Art

Materials

Oil

Untitled, Interior with Iris, Tulips and Pink Kitchen

Untitled, Interior with Iris, Tulips and Pink Kitchen

By Bruce Cohen

Located in San Francisco, CA

Bruce Cohen is known for engaging his viewers with intriguing interiors in his distinctive, crisp, realist style. Influenced by Dutch still-life painting and Surrealism he orchestrat...

Category

2010s Bruce Cohen Art

Materials

Oil

Goldfish

Bruce CohenGoldfish, 2015

Sold

H 54 in W 36 in

Goldfish

By Bruce Cohen

Located in San Francisco, CA

Bruce Cohen is known for engaging his viewers with intriguing interiors in his distinctive, crisp, realist style. Influenced by Dutch still-life painting and Surrealism he orchestrat...

Category

2010s Bruce Cohen Art

Materials

Oil

Kitchen with Ocean View

Kitchen with Ocean View

By Bruce Cohen

Located in San Francisco, CA

Tulips in kitchen with ocean view

Category

Bruce Cohen Art

Materials

Oil

Peaches in Green Bowl

Peaches in Green Bowl

By Bruce Cohen

Located in San Francisco, CA

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Bruce Cohen Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Bruce Cohen art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Bruce Cohen art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Bruce Cohen in oil paint, paint, crayon and more. Not every interior allows for large Bruce Cohen art, so small editions measuring 7 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Leslie Parke, Brian Keith Stephens, and Anthony Adcock. Bruce Cohen art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $3,500 and tops out at $32,000, while the average work can sell for $15,750.

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