Aaron Bohrod
1907-1992

American painter Aaron Bohrod was born in Chicago in 1907.  He began his artistic studies at the Art Institute of Chicago, followed by the Art Students League in New York City.  There he was the student of Ashcan School artist, John Sloan, who was his most influential teacher.  Sloan’s grittier urban scenes informed Bohrod’s Social Realist style of his early career.   In 1936, Bohrod won a Guggenheim fellowship that allowed him to tour the country and capture scenes of American experience.   He participated in WPA projects in Illinois and was renowned for his works recording the Great Depression.  Bohrod is celebrated as a prominent ‘American Regionalist.’

During World War II, Bohrod worked as an artist and then for Life Magazine.  In 1948 he became artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and kept his position until 1973.  It was during this period, beginning in the 1950s, that he focused on hyper realistic ‘trompe l’oeil’ still lives.  He achieved international recognition for these pieces.  He died in 1992 at the age of 84.