New York – Louis K. Meisel Gallery is pleased to announce the forthcoming exhibition of paintings by Bradford Boobis. To be exhibited on the 50^th 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.