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Past Exhibition — 2022

Bradford Boobis

There is no subtitle for this exhibition

4 June — 22 July, 2022

New York – Louis K. Meisel Gallery is pleased to announce the forthcoming exhibition of paintings by Bradford Boobis. To be exhibited on the 50th anniversary of the artist’s death, major paintings by the artist will be on public display for the first since his passing in 1972.

An up-and-coming painter, Boobis died unexpectedly at the age of 44, whereafter his paintings went missing from his New York studio on the night of his death. Their whereabouts unknown for some time, the paintings ultimately came to be in possession of one of Boobis’ long-time London patrons who established a trust to maintain the works for posterity. This is the first time that the paintings will return to New York for exhibition since their disappearance.

Boobis was a composer who turned to painting later in life to cope with the trauma of losing his 3-year-old son to spinal meningitis. Self-taught, Boobis used painting as an outlet to explore both the personal theme of loss, as well as motifs that he saw as larger societal woes, including vanity, pollution, and racial inequity. The work itself is dynamic, exuding tension and movement, and features dystopian realist imagery in swirling dream-like scenes that hark back to sci-fi paperbacks of the era. Thick hills and valleys of paint and gesso disrupt the smooth surface of the canvas, leaving the subject amidst the turmoil. On a whole, the paintings resonate with the political climate of the late 1960s in America, offering themselves as a visual time capsule to that era.

For Meisel, the exhibition of Boobis’ work is particularly meaningful. Boobis was the first artist he exhibited in the late 1960s, and he was instrumental in helping Meisel open his first gallery on Madison Avenue. Brad was a true artist, and I’ve spent the last half-century missing him and his great body of work. In addition to being extremely talented, Brad was an amazing giant of a personality,” he added.

The exhibit will be held from June 4th till July 22nd at 141 Prince Street, New York.

New York – Louis K. Meisel Gallery is pleased to announce the forthcoming exhibition of paintings by Bradford Boobis. To be exhibited on the 50th anniversary of the artist’s death, major paintings by the artist will be on public display for the first since his passing in 1972.

An up-and-coming painter, Boobis died unexpectedly at the age of 44, whereafter his paintings went missing from his New York studio on the night of his death. Their whereabouts unknown for some time, the paintings ultimately came to be in possession of one of Boobis’ long-time London patrons who established a trust to maintain the works for posterity. This is the first time that the paintings will return to New York for exhibition since their disappearance.

Boobis was a composer who turned to painting later in life to cope with the trauma of losing his 3-year-old son to spinal meningitis. Self-taught, Boobis used painting as an outlet to explore both the personal theme of loss, as well as motifs that he saw as larger societal woes, including vanity, pollution, and racial inequity. The work itself is dynamic, exuding tension and movement, and features dystopian realist imagery in swirling dream-like scenes that hark back to sci-fi paperbacks of the era. Thick hills and valleys of paint and gesso disrupt the smooth surface of the canvas, leaving the subject amidst the turmoil. On a whole, the paintings resonate with the political climate of the late 1960s in America, offering themselves as a visual time capsule to that era.

For Meisel, the exhibition of Boobis’ work is particularly meaningful. Boobis was the first artist he exhibited in the late 1960s, and he was instrumental in helping Meisel open his first gallery on Madison Avenue. Brad was a true artist, and I’ve spent the last half-century missing him and his great body of work. In addition to being extremely talented, Brad was an amazing giant of a personality,” he added.

The exhibit will be held from June 4th till July 22nd at 141 Prince Street, New York.

Featured Works

About

Bradford Boobis (b. 1927, New York City; d. 1972, New York City) was a known Hollywood composer, before he turned to art at the age of 32. It was through painting that Boobis expressed his grief after a personal family tragedy.

In the 1960s, Boobis quickly rose to recognition with shows at the Chanin Gallery in New York. Soon after, three of his paintings were loaned to the Library of Presidential Papers through express approval from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At the time, he was the only living artist to be included in the Metropolitan’s collection.

Boobis was later commissioned to paint a Lenin portrait in conjunction with exhibition shows at the State Museums of Moscow and Leningrad in the late 1960s. Unfortunately, he died of a heart attack at the height of his career in 1972.

Related Press

Bradford Boobis: A Survey of Known Works
Produced in 2022, this catalog presents a survey of many of the works produced by the late painter Bradford Boobis.

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