Still Life with Lemon 1975

Alexander Bogen's 'Still Life with Lemon' is like a playful argument between shapes and colors, probably made with oil paint. I imagine Bogen stepping back, squinting, and then diving in again with his brush, pushing that red here, quieting that green there. I love how the clunky brushstrokes of white create a makeshift table top, supporting a ghostly blue form that might contain a lemon. It’s all angles and near-misses. And what about that crazy blue grid with black dots in the upper right? Is that the wall paper? He's not trying to trick you into thinking this is "real," it's more like he's trying to find the essence of still life, maybe like Morandi did, reducing it to its bare bones, its emotional core. You see how the history of painting builds? Each artist borrowing, stealing, and riffing off what came before.