Aaron Bohrod
American, 1907 - 1992Axle Plant, General Motors, 1938
Not on view
Pencil on paper
Dimensions11 5/8 × 14 3/4 in. (29.5 × 37.5 cm)
Image: 8 × 10 3/4 in. (20.3 × 27.3 cm)
Gift of Mr. Jack B. Pierson, 1994.17
In this image, two men load an axle assembly for a General Motors car onto an overhead conveyor on an assembly line. Through the 1930s and 40s, Aaron Bohrod was recognized as one of America’s most original and prolific regionalists. His images of Great Lakes industry include scenes of automotive production.
Born on Chicago’s West Side in 1907, the third child of Jewish immigrant parents, Bohrod gravitated toward art as a child, recalling that, at the age of nine or ten “it was fun to scribble.” After a brief attempt at training through a correspondence course, Bohrod pursued formal study at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Both the classroom instruction and his exposure to the museum’s collection and library had significant effects on his development. During this time, Bohrod also earned a living as a commercial artist in the advertising art departments of local stores. Drawn toward “the mecca for all young artists,” Bohrod relocated to New York City, where he studied at the Art Students League from 1929 to 1932 with notable American artists and instructors such as John Sloan. Bohrod credited Sloan’s insistence on humble, everyday subjects, and on “vitality in painting” as key underpinnings for his own art.
