George Bellows
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Individual Artists
George Bellows Details
From the Inside Flap This wide-ranging retrospective of an American genius covers, for the first time, every stage of George Bellows’ short but prolific career and is destined to become the definitive work for Bellows scholarship. Published in conjunction with a major retrospective exhibition, this book documents the artist’s career from his youthful meteoric rise to the largely unexplored period preceding his death. Read more
Reviews
This book originated as the catalog for a traveling exhibit of George Bellows' work that appeared in Washington, New York and London; I was privileged to see the exhibit in Washington. My initial encounter with Bellows' art was an eye-opener. I had previously thought him only as a dynamic painter of boxing pictures, but here were elegant society scenes and family portraits, stunning landscapes and seascapes, gritty city tenement scenes, and more. The book gives a representative sampling of Bellows' style and subject matter. Yes, there is some “artspeak” and postmodernist nonsense in the essays - stuff about the supposed homoerotic implications of boxing, for example - but that's to be expected these days. It was enlightening to read about Bellows' increasing interest in Old Master art, references to which become a notable feature in his later paintings.The quality of the reproductions has come in for some criticism here. Having seen the paintings in person, I have to say that I don't notice any serious problems (bearing in mind that a reproduction will never look as good an original). I would echo another reviewer, though, in saying that I would have preferred more full-page reproductions.
