Regina Bogat

Regina Bogat (born 1928) is an American abstract artist currently living and working in Glen Ridge, New Jersey.^[1] Married to artist Alfred Jensen, her own artwork was often overlooked in favor of her husband's, although her work has experienced renewed interest from the art world during the past decade.^[2] She is best known for the abstract paintings she made in the 1960s and 1970s using cords, wooden strips, and colorful threads.^[3]

Personal life

Bogat was born in Brooklyn, New York and studied at the Art Students League of New York while also attending Brooklyn College. In 1948, Bogat married photographer Louis Dienes, but the pair later divorced over artistic differences. After her divorce, Bogat moved into a studio on the Bowery in lower Manhattan, where she first met Mark Rothko, who had a studio on the same floor.^[1] In 1962, Bogat moved her studio to Division Street in Chinatown. After a solo show featuring her work was cancelled, Bogat decided to hang the exhibition in her Chinatown studio, inviting her circle of artist friends to attend. It was at this party where she met Alfred Jensen, 30 years her senior and already an established artist, whom she married in 1963.^[1] During this time, she also befriended Eva Hesse, Ad Reinhardt, Claes Oldenburg, and choreographers Trisha Brown and Yvonne Rainer.^[1]

In 1972, Bogat, with her husband and their two children, moved to Glen Ridge, New Jersey, where she still lives today.^[1]

Career

Although Bogat has been productive throughout her entire career, her exhibition history has been sporadic. Her work is included in the collections of the Blanton Museum of Art,^[4] The University of Texas at Austin, and the Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, New York. She is now represented by Zürcher Gallery, New York

Exhibitions

• SARAH CAIN: blue in your body, red when it hits the air, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, California, 2015
• I was a double, Tang Museum, Saratoga Springs, New York, 2014
• Regina Bogat: The New York Years, 1960–1970, Zurcher Studio, New York, 2013
• Vertical: New Paintings by Regina Bogat and Fausto Sevila, Simon Liu Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, 2006
• Regina Bogat, Selected Works, New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey, 1994
• Memorial Boxes, Soho 20 Gallery Invitational Space, New York City, 1984
• Regina Bogat, Women Artists Series at Douglass College, Mabel Smith Douglass Library, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, 1982
• Regina Bogat: The Phoenix and the Mountain, Wenger Gallery, La Jolla, California, 1980–81
• Women Choose Women, New York Cultural Center, New York City, 1973
• Regina Bogat: New Paintings, Terrain Gallery, New York City, 1956

References