Aronson, Boris

Aronson, Boris [Борис Аронсон] or Borech-Ber Aronson, b 15 October 1898 (in other sources 1900) in Kyiv (or in Nizhyn, Chernihiv gubernia), d 16 October 1980 in New York, New York State, USA. A Ukrainian-born American-Jewish stage designer, painter, and sculptor. His father, Solomon Aronson, was the chief rabbi of Kyiv before later assuming the same role in Tel Aviv and Jaffa. Aronson’s art education began at the Kyiv Art School, where he studied under Ivan Seleznov and from where graduated in 1916. A pivotal point in his artistic development was his apprenticeship with the avant-garde painter and stage designer Alexandra Ekster. Through her, he made the acquaintance of theater directors Vsevolod Meyerhold and Aleksandr Tairov, whose influence steered him towards the constructivist style in stage design.

In the spring of 1918 Aronson was one of the co-founders of the art section of the Kyiv-based Kultur Lige. He also served as the secretary of the Lige’s exhibition commission and participated in Kyiv’s first Jewish art exhibition in 1920. Following the success of the exhibition (the catalog for which was published in three languages: Yiddish, Ukrainian, and Russian), Aronson was involved in the unsuccessful efforts to establish a museum of modern Jewish art in Kyiv. Together with Issachar Ber Ryback, he coauthored the programmatic article ‘Di vegn fun der yidisher molerey’ (Paths of Jewish Painting), promoting a ‘Jewish style’ in art, which fused abstract painting with folk art elements. Eventually, following the relocation of the central committee of the Kultur Lige to Moscow in the late 1920, Aronson moved to Moscow as well. There he studied painting under Ilia Mashkov before leaving the USSR in 1922.

After a brief stay in Poland, he moved to Berlin, joining his father who was a rabbi there for a community of immigrants from the former Russian Empire. In Berlin, Aronson studied engraving under Hermann Struck and contributed to an exhibition at the Galerie van Diemen. His monograph, Sovremennaia evreiskaia grafika (Contemporary Jewish Graphic Art), was published in 1923; it offerred, among others, analytical studies of works by Nathan Altman, El Lissitzky, Marc Chagall, and Joseph Chaikov.

By the end of 1923 Aronson moved to the United States of America, where he initially worked with several Jewish theaters in New York as a costume and stage designer. His first independent American project came in 1924 with designs for a performance of S. An-sky’s play Dibbuk at the Unzer Theater in Bronx. From 1934 to 1952 Aronson designed theatrical scenery, costumes, and lighting for thirty-four plays and three musicals on Broadway, continuing his work there into the 1960s and 1970s. His career was highlighted by his designs for the 1964 production of Sholom Aleichem’s Fiddler on the Roof, one of Broadway’s most successful musicals. Aronson also created sets for the Metropolitan Opera and various ballet companies. His talent was recognized with three Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Set Design and six Tony Awards. Outside theater, he maintained an active career as a sculptor and painter. In 1979 Aronson’s contributions to theater set design were recognized with his induction into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Rich, F. Boris Aronson: Stage Design as Visual Metaphor (New York 1989)
Rich, F. and L. Aronson. The Theatre Art of Boris Aronson (New York 1987)
Kazovsky, H. The Artists of the Kultur-Lige / Khudozhniki Kul'tur-Ligi (Moscow 2003)
Aronson, A. ‘Boris Aronson,’ in Fifty Key Theatre Designers (New York 2023)

Larysa Bilous

[This article was written in 2024.]