Borislav Bogdanovich

Borislav Bogdanovich (1899-1970) was a Serbian post-impressionist/modernist artist who, in the 1920s and 30s, was a member of “the twelve” most prominent painters in Belgrade. Relocating to New York City shortly before the outbreak of World War II, Bogdanovich continued his work in a variety of media, and was exhibited alongside masters such as Renoir, Monet and Chagall.

After a sixty-year exhibition hiatus, Bogdanovich’s children, renowned filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich and Emmy-nominated producer and songwriter Anna Thea Bogdanovich, resumed promotion of the collection, with Anna’s discovery of a new cache of her father’s work providing the impetus. Over 50 of these newfound works, dating from c. 1917 - c. 1968, are being displayed at the Trigg Ison Fine Art Gallery in West Hollywood, California, after a private reception on November 1, 2008. Many of the custom, gold-leaf frames housing the paintings were made by Bogdanovich’s wife, Peter and Anna’s mother, Herma, a protégé of the legendary New York frame maker Abe Munn.

“It’s been a very emotional journey rediscovering his work,” Peter Bogdanovich recalls, seated before his father’s oil portrait of him as a pensive 12-year-old clutching a green bottle of ginger ale. “I actually hated sitting for him, but he would always say, in heavily-accented English, ‘When you are older, you will appreciate this.’ And, of course, now we do.”

Adds Anna Bogdanovich, “His work is really magical, and I feel as though I’ve gotten to know my father all over again through this process. We can’t wait to share it with the world.”