Boime, Albert.

Biography

Albert Boime was born in St. Louis, Missouri on March 17, 1933 to Max and Dorothy Boime, both eastern European Jewish immigrants. In 1955 Boime joined the U.S. Army, serving in Germany before his discharge in 1958. Upon returning to the states Boime began his studies at the University of California, Los Angeles and received his B.A. in 1961. He went on to receive both his M.A. (1963) and Doctorate (1968) from Columbia University. Through his brother Jerome (1934-1977), Boime met teacher and social activist Myra Block, and they married in 1964.

He began his career as an instructor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1967 and became an associate professor in 1969. He was appointed professor of art at the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1971. Boime chaired the art department at Binghamton from 1972-74 and was recruited by the University of California, Los Angeles in 1978. He served as a professor of art history there for three decades. Al Boime died in 2008.

As a social art historian Boime was concerned with overlooked artists and ventured outside traditional research methods to evaluate an artist's work. He approached artworks as social documents, not simply artistic expressions, and demonstrated how artists are influenced by the historical events of their lifetime. Though Boime is best known for his studies of 19th-century European art, his work touched on many genres including popular imagery in Europe and America and emblematic national monuments.

In the course of his career Boime authored nearly 20 books and over 100 articles. He also received various awards including two Guggenheim fellowships (1974, 1984), a Rome Fellowship (1979), and the A. Kingsley Porter Prize for his Art Bulletin article "The Second Republic's Contest for the Figure of the Republic" (1971). In 2006 a symposium on the social history of art was convened at UCLA in his honor.

Quoting from the preface of his book "The Birth of Abstract Romanticism," Boime described his art historical intent: By examining the political forces that motivated the art makers and finders, and revealing the hidden mainsprings in visual production, I truly believed that I was contributing to the emancipation of thought, at least in one small corner of the minds of my students and readers. Thus art history became my raison d'ètre, a vehicle for enhancing the lives of my fellow citizens, while at the same time bringing about a nano-change toward social justice in society.

Sources: Dictionary of Art Historians, albertboime.com

From the guide to the Albert Boime papers, 1963-2007, (University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections.)