Influences and Legacy George Bellows: Painter of Action

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Influences and Legacy George Bellows: Painter of Action

The painters Everett Shinn, Robert Henri, and John Sloan, all members of the group, “The Eight,” c. 1896. Bellows trained under Robert Henri, who became the leading figure American painter George Bellows, self- of “The Eight,” a group of artists who showed portrait. Bellows is best known for his together in 1908 and eventually developed paintings of children, tenement life, and into what became known as the Ashcan School. boxing matches, all of which depict the changing life in New York City during a time of rapid growth through immigration. other sporting scenes beyond boxing, and a series of works relating to World War I. His most vibrant works are those that depict action, such as the George Bellows: Painter of Action sports scenes. Here he referenced many sources, such as photographic studies by the English pho- George Bellows (1882–1925) was born in Columbus, tographer Eadweard Muybridge, who captured the Ohio. An athletic youth who played baseball and bas- body in motion, as well as paintings by the American ketball, young Bellows seemed poised for a career in master Thomas Eakins. Bellows’ body of work is sports. He also gravitated toward art, though, and characterized by a gritty naturalism that came from in 1904 he left his home state to study painting in direct observation of his subjects. New York. There he studied with the painter Robert Henri at the New York School of Art. He painted Influences and Legacy many types of scenes in New York and showed some Bellows trained under Robert Henri, who became the of his works side-by-side with European modernists leading figure of “The Eight,” a group of artists who at the Armory Show in 1913. Of particular interest showed together in 1908 and eventually developed are his paintings of children, tenement life, and box- into what became known as the Ashcan School. ing matches, all of which depict the changing life Henri taught his students to focus on contemporary in the city during a time of rapid growth through life and to paint in a manner that reflected real expe- immigration. riences with their subjects. Although Bellows died as the result of a ruptured Seen in the context of modernist paintings and sculp- appendix when he was just forty-two, he was a tures by European artists like Duchamp and Picasso, prolific artist who was recognized by his contempo- Bellows’ work is notably different. It is concrete and raries as a master of American painting. In addition based on observations, with little interest in abstrac- to the paintings of urban life in New York City, tion. The focus on modern life and action, however, Bellows painted seascapes in Maine, portraits, many was progressive in American art at the time. Bellows 88 ACADEMIC DECATHLON ® ART RESOURCE GUIDE REVISED PAGE 2013–2014 *.

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George Bellows on Monhegan Island
David Peters Corbett The World Is Terrible and It Is Not There at All: George Bellows on Monhegan Island Painted on Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine during the summer of 1913, George Bellows’s small oil on panel Churn and Break (fig. 1) depicts a shore and its surrounding sea. The observer’s gaze encounters a mound of dark, almost black, rocks, which glisten with trails of moisture and light. To the left, the sea, sweeping in a great wave up against the rocks, threatens to overtop the ridge. In the midground, further dramatic swells rise and fall, and overhead, in a dreary sky, Bellows’s paint describes the insistent perpendicular fall of rain. Above the rocks and to the right, a plume of spray, dense and gray and white, jets up in a balletic swirl of creamy pigment. Bellows’s painting uses dazzling mixed brushwork to portray the variety of forms and textures of this scene, from the fluid lines and sinuous handling of the fore- ground sea to the dragged marks that describe the descending curtain of rain and cast a shadowy veil across the distance. The world we are confronted by in Churn and Break seems to fall into two disparate levels of experience: on the one hand, a discrete, self-contained universe of vital but inhuman matter, formed by the crashing sea and mute shoreline; on the other, an intimately human domain, the gestural runs and virtuoso flourishes of Bellows’s hand and brush.1 Despite this apparently radical division, the two levels also merge fleetingly into a single identity.
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Bellows, George Also Known As Bellows, George Wesley American, 1882 - 1925
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From Theleague
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Hello CES, MES, & RES Art Students!
Hello CES, MES, & RES Art Students! I’ve selected some artwork we’ve studied recently. I’d like for you to look at these pieces of art and try to answer the questions. Review the videos, discuss them with your family, and share the information you know with them. We have just scratched the surface on these artists, see what other information you can find about them. Enjoy researching and remember- an artist spends about 80% of their time experimenting and researching and only about 20% creating their finished piece of artwork. Sketch, sketch and sketch some more during the next two weeks. Please take advantage of this time to explore and gain information that will benefit your next projects. I will continue to post different paintings each week, so check in frequently. If you have any questions, please email me. Warmly, Ms. Slate CES, MES, & RES Art Teacher [email protected] 4th and 5th Grade Art George Bellows’ - Dempsey and Firpo George Bellows, Dempsey and Firpo 1924, oil on canvas, 51 in. x 63.25 in. (129.5 cm. x 160.7 cm.) Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY. USA Purchase, with funds from Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney 31.95 ● Analyze Bellow’s painting Dempsey and Firpo and the techniques he used for showing action; ● Learn how Bellows used color and contrast to create an exciting mood; ● Describe how diagonal lines and contrasting color show movement; ● Identify viewpoint, proportion, and scale; ● Practice sketching contour figure Questions About the Painting Who appears to be winning this boxing match? Why didn't
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