This was a sustained campaign by the company to define the Future in its own terms. Their product may be utilitarian but their vision was soaring and an appeal to the old spirit of the New York World Fair, This is Tomorrow.

 

The artist whose name and style appears throughout is Arthur Radebaugh, about whom little as yet is known (see signature above). A book published by the Palace of Culture (Jared Rosenbaum and Rachel Mackow) Arthur Radebaugh, the Future we were promised, is much anticipated.My selection is dedicated to Laurent Durieux who really appreciates these things.

 

The images define instead the Past in the overall bulginess and chrome striped whizziness of the Thirties Pulp magazines. Even the Telephone is moulded for speed and cleaving the air. They leave nothing to functional design, even the Merry-Go-Round. After c1950 Bohn discarded the hope in the Future for an anti-Communist campaign addressing the dangers of the present.

 

BOHN SECOND GALLERY

 

BOHN WITHOUT THE FUTURE 1944

THE HORSE