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Louis Bosa

d. 1981

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  1. Flutist on the Roof by Louis Bosa, Image 1.

    Louis Bosa

    Flutist on the Roof, 1968 Bosa Exhibition

    Oil On Canvas

    24 x 13 in (60.96 x 33.02 cm)

  2. Drawing # 54 by Louis Bosa, Image 1.

    Louis Bosa

    Drawing # 54, 1968 Bosa Exhibition

    Ink on Paper

    23 x 25 in (58.42 x 63.5 cm)

Painter Louis Bosa's work has been compared with artists ranging from Pieter Breughel the Elder to John Sloan and the Ashcan School. Bosa's paintings, which are primarily oil on canvas, often focus on people and street scenes from his native Italy. Bosa would follow his subjects around, making sketches and mental notes, but the way he combined his observations in the final work often resulted in more fantastical images that conflated several separate scenes. His figures are highly stylized and expressionistic, bordering on caricature. They reveal comedy in the midst of tragedy. He explained, "People are so funny at times they are sad." His work includes whimsical paintings of nuns riding bicycles and similar authority figures engaged in mundane activities. After studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice, Bosa emigrated to the U.S. and studied under John Sloan, a member of the Ashcan School, at the Art Students League in New York. He often returned to his native Italy and traveled extensively throughout Europe. Bosa painted for the Works Progress Administration and the Whitney Museum.

From 1944 to 1946, he was an instructor at the Art Students League in New York City and from 1943 to 1946, he taught at the Cape Ann School at Rockport, Massachusetts. In 1960, he was an Instructor of Advanced Painting at Cleveland Institute of Art.
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