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 had lived
in New York City since 1900, when, at the age of thirteen, he emigrated
with his family from Minsk, Russia. The Bogdanoves were part of the large
wave of Russian Jewish immigrants who came to America at the turn of the
century. Soon after settling in New York, Abraham began studying art at
the Cooper Union Institute of Art. In 1903, he entered the National Academy
of Design school and, at the same time, served an apprenticeship, painting
advertisement displays for the Bull Durham Company in New York. Through
this dual education, Bogdanove developed his abilities in design, draftsmanship,
and painting. His studies at the academy were directed by the painters George
Wiloughby Maynard (1843-1923) and Francis Coates Jones (1857-1932), and
by the end of his tenure in 1911, he had earned several honors. For three
consecutive years, he received the distinguished annual Hallgarten Prize,
which was bestowed upon the three best paintings exhibited at the academy
by artists under the age of thirty-five.
Like Robert Henri and Edward Hopper, Bogdanove was inspired by the stark
drama of Monhegan Island. Returning there every summer from 1918 until the
end of his life, he spent his days hiking onto the rocky outcroppings at
the water's edge, where he applied energetic brushstrokes with vigor and
gusto to capture the ever-changing coloristic and compositional possibilities
of crashing waves and jagged rocks. Whereas other artists represented saw
only gray tones in Monhegan's rocks, Bogdanove perceived them to be full
of color, and he captured their vivacity with a wide-ranging palette. He
also chronicled Monhegan's harbor and fish houses, demonstrating an attention
to the form-defining properties of light that parallel Hopper's. While Bogdanove
captured the animated qualities of his subject matter, he also created strong,
abstract designs that reflect his understanding of modernist principles.
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Abraham
Bogdanove drew inspiration from Monhegan Island's ever-changing
conditions of light and atmosphere.
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