TitleDinner Plate
Artist
James Bohary
(American, b. 1940)
Date1989
MediumRetouched monotype with acrylic and oil pastel on paper
DimensionsUnframed: 21 1/4 x 16 1/2 in.
Other (Backing board): 34 × 26 in.
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY, Gift of the artist, 2004
Object number2004.4
Label TextWhile James Bohary does not necessarily consider himself an abstract artist in the strict sense of the word, his work is part of the lineage of abstract painting of the last fifty years. Many of his paintings suggest the "overall" effect and recall Harold Rosenberg's dictum that, for a painter, the canvas was an arena in which to act, rather than a space in which to reproduce an object. Bohary initially studied graphic design at the School of Visual Arts in the early 1960s before receiving a BS in Art Education at New York University. He then studied with Philip Guston, ANA elect, at the New York Studio School and emerged as an abstract painter on the eve of a period when painting was often referred to as all but dead. His work has been linked to the action paintings of Franz Kline and Willem De Kooning, NA elect, and for more than thirty years Bohary has explored the universality of abstract painting through process and gesture. His awareness of the efficacy of abstraction is reflected in a recent statement: "I consider myself fortunate to be involved with a dialogue that has the ability to be understood by all people, regardless of the manner in which they write or speak." Bohary has been referred to as a third- and even fourth-generation Abstract Expressionist and he has consistently tapped into both the conscious and unconscious mind to arrive "at a place in his painting where both intellect and emotion can co-exist." The artist is interested in mark making, and it is through the successful reconciliation of these various components that he is able to achieve a transcendent abstract vocabulary. Not all of the artist's paintings are completely abstract, however, and in many there are references to natural elements. Bohary first exhibited in the National Academy's Annual in 1993, and in the Annual of 1996 he won the Edwin Palmer Memorial Prize for the best marine painting. Since 1998 he has been a professor at the State University of New York, Binghamton and has been one of the more prolific abstract artists to exhibit at the National Academy.
While "Dinner Plate" lacks the physical impasto of some of Bohary's oil paintings, the artist has maintained his hallmark of tactility by layering the gestures and juxtaposing pinks, blues, browns, and black within a frame of earth tones to create a visual sense of impasto. Like many of Bohary's works, "Dinner Plate" evolved over a long period of time and actually began as one from a series of studio monotypes that he created in New York after his return from Barcelona, Spain in 1989. It was then reworked by the artist with acrylic and pastel. "Dinner Plate" is suggestive of representation not only in title, but also by the circular delineation of the central image. This referential quality combined with the light palette of pinks and blues and the serrated line repeated throughout the composition suggest some of the qualities of concurrent Neo-Expressionism of the 1980s.
MNP
