Leonard Bocour American entrepreneur, paint dealer and art collector. Considered the creator of the first acrylic paint. Date of Birth: 18.03.1910 Country: USA

Biography of Leonard Bocour

Leonard Bocour was an American entrepreneur, paint seller, and art collector. He is considered the creator of the first acrylic paint. For a long time, oil paint and watercolor were the main tools for artists; it was only in the mid-20th century that painters were introduced to a new paint based on acrylic. The Americans Sam Golden and Leonard Bocour are credited with creating the first acrylic paint.

Bocour was born in New York and founded the company 'Bocour Artists Colors' in 1933. In the late 1940s, together with Sam Golden, Bocour developed a revolutionary new paint called 'Magna' based on acrylic. The development was fully completed by the 1960s, and it served as the basis for the creation of other acrylic paints. It is worth noting that acrylic resin technologies were already available in 1934, but Bocour and Golden only started working on paint development in the 1940s. 'Magna' paint was created using a lacquer solvent. Although it was suitable for practical use in the 1950s, Leonard and Sam were only able to fully complete the project by the 1960s.

Parallel to their work, Otto Rohm and Otto Haas were also researching the use of acrylic emulsions. Over time, it became clear that acrylic paints had a very bright future. They could be used not only in painting but also in construction and decoration work. One major advantage of acrylic paints was that they could be easily washed off with water when in liquid form, yet became waterproof when dried.

From 1952 to 1970, Golden and Bocour led the company 'Bocour Artists Colors Co.,' primarily engaged in paint sales. Many well-known artists of that time, such as Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, and many others, purchased their paints from Bocour. The brand names 'Bocour' referred to watercolor and oil paints, 'Bellini' was for strictly oil paints, and 'Aquatec' was the brand for acrylic paints introduced later.

Bocour was also known as a highly promising and serious art collector. His collection included many interesting works from several artists who later became quite famous and popular. Bocour later donated a portion of his collection to a college in Maryland.