THE  LEGACY ART OF  BORISLAV  BOGDANOVICH

VITAE

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SELECTED REVIEWS

TRIGG ISON FINE ART
BOGDANOVICH: IMPRESSIONS

1940 - 1950S
EXEMPLARY REVIEWS BY THE FOREMOST CRITICS OF THE TIME

"...There are always people to say that a given moment is not the right one for art.  We may well be grateful to Bogdanovich for saying so clearly through his pictures that the present moment is one when art is as necessary as ever it was or ever will be."  
                                                  Walter Pach - Lilienfeld Galleries Brochure April 1942  

WALTER PACH (1883-1958) was an artist, critic, lecturer, art adviser, and renowned art historian who wrote extensively about modern art and championed the cause of modernism in this country. Through his numerous books, articles, and translations of European art texts, Pach brought the emerging modernist viewpoint to the American public.          CLICK HERE for complete review.

"Bogdanovich and Others – It would be easy to say of Bogdanovich, prominent Yugoslavian painter now in this country and showing his recent pictures at the Lilienfeld Gallery, that he suggests in his work a combination of Renoir, Matisse and Van Gogh and let it go at that.  But it would not be entirely fair.  For while he does in his bright color juxtapositions suggest the Dutchman, in his design (especially in paintings of interiors) Matisse, and in his brushwork and figure painting Renoir, he seems to have fused the essence of all of them in a new, fresh, luminous expression which is oddly personal and, even more oddly, American." 
Emily Genauer  (World Telegram 4/18/42)

“Ten Gems of Modern Art” is the title of the new exhibition at the Lilienfeld Galleries.  They are by Segonzac, Utrillo, Vlaminck, Derain, Monet, Feininger, Nordfeldt and Bogdanovich.  I still prefer to most of these . . . the Bogdanovich portrait of a little boy, uncommonly appealing in its vivid color patterning, its intimacy, and the warmth of its characterization." 
Emily Genauer (World Telegram, 6/19/43)  

"Borislav Bogdanovich made his debut in this country in 1942 . . . with an impressive exhibition of paintings that paid homage to the luminous and sensitive color of the French school of still life and interior painters."
(Pictures On Exhibit, 5/1948)

"Borislav Bogdanovich is showing twenty-seven of his oils at the Van Diemen Galleries through May 15th. His works are lush in color which show an affinity with the Orient – large canvases of rich gardens (looking almost tropical until one learns their sites are in upstate NY), still lifes with great, flowered rugs as backgrounds for blazing gourds, and one nude figure with a bright and lamp-lit surface.  Although his drawing and composition stir no arguments, everything is subordinated to his vivacious and sensuous color."
Carlyle Burrows (Herald Tribune, 5/2/48)

"It is said that the Slavic peoples are either in the depths of despair or on the heights of exuberance, one or the other.  If this be true, Borislav Bogdanovich must never paint while in his despondent mood.  Certainly his current show at the Van Diemen Galleries gives a bright and happy aspect of the world.  He paints boldly, perhaps even heavily, but the colors are light, gay and airy, the subjects comprise Woodstock landscapes, figures in interiors and still lifes." 
Art Digest (5/1/48) 

"Borislav Bogdanovich combines an unerring sense of design with an unusual ability to handle fresh and vivid color in his latest showing at the Van Diemen-Lilienfeld Gallery.  His is the skill which is able to actuate a world of warm realities whose pristine vitality is a quality so often lacking these days.  This Yugoslavian painter, now happily at home in America for over a decade, paints many of New England’s familiar objects.  His still life combinations of luscious pears, black kettles, swirling patternistic Japanese screens, brooding boys in cowboy reds and fall fruits, form the ingredients of some beautiful painting."                              
Jane M. Tilley (Pictures On Exhibit, 4/1952)

Bogdanovich is showing a group of oils also dazzling in their strong colors and vibrancy . . . These are vividly and solidly composed pictures, most of them still lifes, which have the fascinating effect of seeming freedom yet knit together as though with barrel staves in basic harmony and structure.  They are filled with the magic of living today yet do not for a moment sell beauty short for the ugly neuroticism of our time.
Charles A. Wagner (NY Mirror, 1958)

"Borislav Bogdanovich paints freely and devotedly the objects which his eye encounters in his daily life.  The exhibition, now at the Hammer Galleries, reveals many such high-keyed examples, high-keyed in the sense of tonalities, for this painter’s pigments are bold, hot and decoratively varied, muscular reds, greens as deep as nature’s and dominant blues.  The lovingly modeled heads of the artist’s daughter and his wife are conceived in the buoyant colors which are Bogdanovich’s signature and singular contribution."  
George Stiles (Pictures On Exhibit, 1958)

"Borislav Bogdanovich shows still lifes and figures in which a judicious choice of striking colors transcends the realism of his observations . . ."
Herbert D. Hale (Art News, 1958)

"In our time confusion is reigning over the meaning of modern art.  The artists are losing contact with reality, shifting into the realm of fantasy and subconscious, employing abstract signs and symbols that have little or no power of communication.  The stress of color, line and space relationship threatens to make art purely decorative, or at best evoke emotional response.  Human values seem to be lost in a fever of experimenting, in denying the tradition of the old masters.  

Borislav Bogdanovich is proud of his artistic heritage: Byzantine art, with its strong stylized composition and lyric solemnity and, on the other hand, the love of life and optimism of Yugoslav folk art.  Although Bogdanovich studied in Paris and the work of the post-impressionists inspired him to some degree, these two innate traditions remained the main stems for his paintings.  Bogdanovich paints an intimate world full of beauty, of love and of life.  The romantic realism of his pictures emanates a serenity that is contagious for the beholder.  The colors are gay, luminescent, sometimes daring, when he sets a brilliant blue against a deep magenta and a luminous yellow.  There is often a tender, lyrical note in his purples, greens and pinks, joyfully accompanying the leitmotiv of the color harmony.  His compositions are firmly built within strong linear elements.  There is no doubt about the meaning of Bogdanovich’s paintings. His still lifes, portraits and interiors are filled with a lust for life that is refreshing in its quiet contentment." 

Excerpt from a personal profile by Dr. F. W. Neugass, Editor (Die Weltkunst)

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