C. Curry Bohm

~by Julia Pearson

The fall season will be celebrated by a major exhibit at the Brown County Art Gallery located at the corner of Artist Drive and Main Street in Nashville. More than 80 works from private and museum collections by C. Curry Bohm can be viewed through October 15. It is an art lover’s feast for eyes containing 26 Hoosier Salon paintings and 20 prize winning paintings from juried exhibitions. Noted for his Brown County winter landscapes, other seasons will also be represented among scenes from the Smoky Mountains, and harbors and seascapes of the East Coast. In many ways, this is a “coming home” for the redhaired painter in black eyeglasses. When the Brown County art colony was in its fullness, Bohm and his family made the Hoosier hillside their year-round residence.

“For Better or Worse” image used on the cover of “My Brown County Home” CD in 1999.

photo by Frank Hohenberger courtesy, The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.

Claude Curry Bohm was born in Nashville, Tennessee on October 19, 1894. His family moved to New Orleans where Bohm was raised surrounded by the creative lifestyle of his parents. His father Robert was a mural painter and his mother Pauline was an actress. Robert’s death precipitated a move by the family to Louisville when Curry was in his teens. A range of jobs fed his artistic spirit: in a newspaper printshop and with a small circus travelling along the Ohio River. In the tender season of his 18 th year, Bohm eloped with his sixteen-year-old sweetheart, Lillian, who lied about her age to secure a wedding license. They were a mutually supportive team, moving to Chicago so Curry could attend the Art Institute. He went to work as a printer and then opened an art studio in the Windy City.

The Bohms began summer art visits to Brown County in 1920. In 1926 Bohm was a charter member of the Brown County Art Gallery Association and a member of the Brown County Art Guild. In 1932 he moved permanently to Nashville, while Lillian continued working in Chicago for two years to provide financial support for his endeavor.

Their first home in Peaceful Valley was a converted cow barn that they rented for 10 dollars a month. It would be 18 months till he sold a painting, but they could rely on grocers Paul Adams and Cecil Rogers to carry them through the winter.

In the following years they bought an old farmhouse on Greasy Creek for home and studio. When they found a home in Nashville in 1947, he had the old barn moved from the Greasy Creek farm and rebuilt behind the house to serve as a studio.

He was a member of the Hoosier Salon, Rockport Art Association, and the North Shore Art Association. He received the Chicago Municipal Art League Prize, the Gold Medal in the Chicago Palette and Chisel, the Frederick N. Vance Memorial Award from the Brown County Art Gallery, the Edward Rector Memorial from the Hoosier Salon, the Lawrence A. Downs Prize, the Tri Kappa Purchase Prize, Daughters of Indiana Award, and the Hoosier Salon Summer Landscape Prize. In 1940, the International Business Machines Corporation selected Bohm for representation at the World’s Fair.

Lillian was a keen administrator of the business side of her husband’s art. During World War II Bohm put his art career on hold so that he could illustrate manuals for General Motors, a major supplier to the war effort. Lillian worked in Indianapolis for a utility company.

When artist Lucie Hartrath died, her estate was left to Bohm and several others of the Art Colony. Curry and his wife honored Hartrath and celebrated their own 50 th wedding anniversary with a party that included champagne punch at home followed by dinner at the Nashville House.

The Peaceful Valley where he loved to paint had building and development invading its beauty and the quiet country roadways sported “No Trespassing” signs on the fences. Before his death on November 18, 1971, Bohm had a solo show at the Brown County Art Guild. In his later years he surprised art circles with abstract pieces.

The new book by Daniel Kraft, Gregg Hertzlieb, and Jim Ross, C. Curry Bohm: Brown County and Beyond will be available for purchase. “His Smoky Mountain and East Coast landscapes were major painting subjects for his showing in the Indiana Hoosier Salon exhibitions, from 1929–1967, where he won over 25 awards, including two Best in Show Awards. Curry Bohm thus became one of the leading painters in the Indiana arts community during the 20 th century.”

The Brown County Art Gallery is open daily, with free admission and parking. The State of Indiana COVID-19 Protocols are in place for the protection of visitors. Visitors will find an added treasure: a special Gustave Baumann Exhibit & Collection. In an expanded display space will be an example of every known image created by Baumann in Brown County.