George Bellows
Have you ever seen a painting of two fighters going at it hot and heavy on a stag night? If you have, then chances are that you have just seen a painting of George Bellows's from Tom Sharkey's Athletic Club in New York City. Prizefights were among some of his favorite subjects, although he only did few paintings of them. George Wesley Bellows was an American realist painter in the 20th century. He was thought of as an artist of the Ashcan school, although he wasn't one of "The Eight," which included George Henri and other well-known artists who painted images of the city and life there. His career included paintings of urban images as well as landscapes and portraits. Although his career was cut short at an early age, his paintings reflected America and everyday life in it. George Bellows began his painting career in the early 1900s. He painted what was happening in the world at that time and it has been said that there were aspects of Bellows' work, which were in advance of their time rather than abreast of or behind it. He can be thought of as the true progenitor of the American social realists of the 1930s and 1940s (Lucie-Smith 70). Early in his painting career, his casual scenes of people at leisure shone wi
Wasserman, Emily. The American Scene- Early Twentieth Century. New York: Lamplight Publishing, 1975. "Sister Wendy's American Collection." P.B.S. Online. Although Bellows didn't exhibit with the Eight Artists of the Ashcan school, by the time of the Macbeth Galleries show, his name was often linked with theirs as a follower of Robert Henri and one of the "youthful apostles of force, who express...the rush and crush of modern life, the contempt for authority" (Mecklenburg, Zuriers, Snyder 81). When Henri established an art school on Broadway in 1904, he gathered the other members of the old Philadelphia crowd and newcomers such as Bellows, Glenn Coleman and Reginald Marsh, who formed the second generation of the realist school (von Hartz 20). Winslow Homer and Thomas Eakins, to whom he was frequently compared in his lifetime, both went abroad. Bellows never did, preferring to ferret out the best European work that came into this country and learn what he could from it (Morgan np). The attraction that Bellows had to Eakins's work expressed itself in two ways- through Bellows's choice of subject matter, and though his attitude to composition (Lucie-Smith 69). Adams, Henry. "The Paintings of George Bellows." American Artist. July 1992 v 36: 52 The greatest period of activity and influence for the American artists known as the Ashcan school was prior to WWI. Ashcan school is a popular term used to designate the New York realists and their selection of backyards and ash cans as approved subject matter for their paintings (Perlman 196). The name, taken from the ever-present urban image of the garbage can, wasn't actually coined until the 1930s (Sister 1). The Ashcan school painters represent the crucial moment of transition between the artistic values of the nineteenth century and those of Modernism itself (Lucie-Smith 61). The Armory Show of 1913 completely changed the American art scene by introducing Cubism and the whole mainstream of Modernist development (Lucie-Smith 61). The Ashcan school's leadership was itself founded on an exhibition in 1908 at the Macbeth Galleries. The exhibition was a protest against prevailing policies at the National Academy of Design; it was a sensational success with the audience, if not entirely so with the critics (Lucie-Smith 61). At the turn of the 20th century, the decorous, genteel, refined surface of American painting was buckling from the pressure of new subterranean energies -raw, urban streetwise, radical- that would soon erupt and reshape the artistic landscape. The first wave of the modernist upheaval included the Ashcan school (Macmillian 16). Reynolda House, Museum of American Art. 29 Oct. 2001. http://www.reynoldahouse.org/dancemad.html Bellows's urban scene paintings were perceived as an accurate and important document of the time. For many members of his audience, Bellows's art was about "real life" and "big ideas" ("Bellows" 2). His art depicts scenes of everyday life and he once said, "Anything that strikes you as real is worthy of being painted" (Reynolda 1). After 1908, his art explored several directions. He continued to depict fight scenes and other city subjects but also painted seascapes in Maine (Mecklenburg, Zuriers, and Snyder 82).
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2452
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)
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