Albert Boime

The four-volume, 3,000-page series, published over a two-decade period by the University of Chicago Press, includes Art in an Age of Revolution, 1750–1800 (1987); Art in an Age of Bonapartism, 1800–1815 (1990); Art in an Age of Counterrevolution, 1815–1848 (2004); and Art in an Age of Civil Struggle, 1848–1871 (2007).

In an analysis of Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night, Boime convinced art historians that the images in the painting's night sky were not a fanciful artwork, but are the result of Van Gogh's observations of the sky from the window of the asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence at 4 a.m. on June 19, 1889, the day he wrote his brother that he had completed the painting.

Albert Boime (March 17, 1933 – October 18, 2008), was an American art historian and author of more than 20 art history books and numerous academic articles.

He was a professor of art history at the University of California, Los Angeles for three decades, until his death.

Albert Isaac Boime was born on March 17, 1933, in St. Louis, Missouri.

His mother, Dorothy Rubin, was a European Jewish immigrant and his father, Max Boime, was a salesman, and a naval yard worker in Brooklyn during World War II.

During his studies, he was greatly influenced by his brother Jerome Boime (1934-1977), then in Chicago.

In 1955, Boime joined the United States Army, stationing in West Germany.

Boime went on to earn a bachelor's degree in art history from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1961 after completing service.

He followed up in the field with a master's and a doctorate from Columbia University in 1963 and 1968 respectively.

Through his brother, he met and married Myra Block, a teacher and socialist activist in 1964.

He was a professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook from 1968 until 1972.

His first book, The Academy and French Painting in the Nineteenth Century, published in 1971 by Phaidon Press, examined the unintended role of the conservative Académie des Beaux-Arts in the development of 19th-century painters.

In 1974, art critic and commentator Hilton Kramer of The New York Times called the book "the indispensable text" for a reconsideration of the merits of the Salon painters, as the book demonstrated the web of connections in the cultural and institutions of the time that affected artistic tastes and aspirations of that time.

He then taught and chaired the art department at the Binghamton University, remaining there until 1978.

He joined the faculty of UCLA in 1979.

Boime wrote more than 20 books of art history, focusing not only on style and form, but using a and psychoanalytic examination of the social and political contexts of art, examining how artworks are representations of the class, economic, power and social structures and racial attitudes that exist during their creation.

In a 1985 lecture to the American Astronomical Society, Boime compared the positions of the moon and Venus that night and showed that they corresponded to the positions of the celestial objects in the painting, noting that the scene "tallies with astronomical facts at the time the painting was executed."

In "Which Came First: The Cosmos Or The Chaos?", which Boime wrote for COSMOS & CHAOS: A Cultural Paradox group exhibition, he included works by Ib Benoh, James Bohary, Eric Fischl, Lucian Freud, and Jerome Witkin.

Boime examined the complex of psychological, social, and political issues that some artists face in today's society.

In his last publication, Boime details his encounter with the artist, Kamran Khavarani, and his paintings.

The book goes through the life of Kamran Khavarani: his inspiration from the Persian poet Rumi, his painting methods, and discusses the new type of art that Khavarani has created which he calls “Abstract Romanticism.” In a letter from 2008, Boime writes:

After 40 years of teaching and writing numerous art history books and articles, it is my last book "The Birth of Abstract Romanticism" that has truly been the culmination of my career.

For anyone familiar with my work, you will notice that this book is radical departure from my previous writings.

For once, just this once, I've written a book about a relatively unknown artist and a brand new art style – Abstract Romanticism – that can influence the history of art.

Certainly his work goes against the grain of most international contemporary art in fact purports to offer an alternative to it.

This constitutes a wonderful change that offsets the "ugliness" of so much bacchanalian and barbaric display that presently passes for art.

It is my sincere wishes that his body of work may lead you into true beauty of visual art and uplift your spirit as it has mine.

A longtime resident of Los Angeles, Boime died at the age of 75 in his home there on October 18, 2008, of the bone marrow disorder myelofibrosis.

His book series, The Social History of Modern Art, analyzed French art from the mid-18th century to the end of the 19th century, making connections between the art and subject matter to historical events at the time, such as the French Revolution and the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte.