Lila Katzen, 5 Reds and 1 Silver, ca. 1964, acrylic on canvas, gift of Leonard Bocour (1973.98)
Painted Exchanges: Artists and Paintmakers, 1968-76
February 1–May 11, 2024
Opening reception
5:00–7:00 PM, Thursday, February 1, 2024
6:00 PM Remarks and short musical performance inspired by artwork on view
Between 1968 and 1976, paintmaker Leonard Bocour, with his wife and collaborator Ruth
Bocour, made a series of gifts to the collection of the Binghamton University Art
Museum, augmented by additional gifts from Sam Golden, Bocour’s nephew and partner
in Bocour Artist Colors. The artists represented in this collection were beneficiaries
of a network of exchanges, whereby the paintmakers gave paints to financially strapped
artists to enable them to continue to make work, made connections for them with galleries,
and gave lectures to their art school students, and, in exchange, they solicited feedback
on the qualities that the painters sought in their materials, received assistance
in placing their paints in local art stores, enjoyed being part of the creative milieu,
and frequently received paintings in lieu of monetary payments.
Some of the artists in this exhibition have found a place in the narrative of art
history, others have gained less recognition, yet together, their works offer insight
into American artmaking during a period of reorientation in the waning days of the
New York School’s abstraction. This exhibition invites visitors to closely examine
the paintings’ surfaces, offering insight into a range of styles, materials and techniques,
as some artists sought to expand the possibilities of abstraction, while others leaned
toward the figurative.
Gifts from Leonard and Ruth Bocour and Sam Golden to the Binghamton University Art
Museum are among the many contributions they made to university and civic museums
in the Northeast, and beyond. In so doing, they supported artists in placing their
work in public institutions, furthered art education, expanded the audience for contemporary
art by affording regional access to it, and enabled museums to enrich the collections
under their stewardship.
The exhibition was incubated in the Thinking Through Painting course, co-taught by
the curators. Preliminary research on several of the paintings from the Bocour collection
was conducted by students in the two-semester research intensive course sequence offered
under Binghamton University’s Source Project initiative.
Co-curated by Andrea Kastner, Department of Art and Design, and Pamela Smart, Department
of Art History. Support is provided by donors to the Kenneth C. Lindsay Study Room
Fund and to the Binghamton Fund for the University Art Museum.
Also opening are David Hammons: Street Specific, curated by Tom McDonough, Adjunct Curator and Professor of Art History; The Intimate Photographic Style of Larry Fink, curated by Jason Anglum '24, History and Physics majors; and Käthe Kollwitz: Timeless Desolation, curated by Toby Olson ’25, Art History and Sculpture majors, German and Russian Studies
minor.
For details on upcoming programming, see our “Events” page and social media. All events are free and open to the public.