The Powerful Hand of George Bellows: Drawings from the Boston Public Library
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,History & Criticism
The Powerful Hand of George Bellows: Drawings from the Boston Public Library Details
Review "Excellent reproductions."―The Art Times Read more Book Description Features a collection of drawings by the American realist George Bellows Read more See all Editorial Reviews
Reviews
The drawings and prints of George Bellows housed in the Boston Public Library are indeed a national treasure. Bellows was a native of Columbus Ohio, the only son of older parents. His sister was a grown woman when Bellows was born. He attended Ohio State University but did not complete his senior year. Bellows enrolled in the New York School of Art and was greatly influenced by his teacher, Robert Henri. Bellows became part of the Ash Can School which was a group of realist painters who captured the immediacy and intensity of everyday life in NYC. His career trajectory took off at this point and Bellows created a tremendous body of work, including over 700 paintings and over 200 lithographic editions. Tragically Bellows died at age 43, which certainly makes me wonder at what this outstanding artist would have offered had he lived and painted another 40 years.This volume contains a wonderful quote by Bellows: "You must take care to distinguish between what immediately interests you and what sets your imagination to work. It is pretty hard to make a distinction between fancy and imagination, but the sooner you learn to make that distinction the better it will be for you."I am drawn to the work of Bellows, not only for the superb technical proficiency or the commitment to realism, but also to the strong social justice themes that he was willing to adopt in his work. I am attracted to the scenes of dirty and poor immigrants living on top of each other in dirty industrialized New York City. I am attracted to the scenes of urban rough-neck boys living like wharf rats and swimming nude in the nasty Hudson River. I am attracted to his anti-war images where he depicts the brutality and horror of warfare on the citizens of Europe. I am attracted to the sweaty struggling scenes of man on man fist fighting, where Bellows demonstrated his outstanding ability to capture the male form in motion. I enjoy his social commentary whereby he portrays faith healers and tent meetings designed to scare folks into the arms of the Lord. I am moved by the horror of racially based hate crime and murder that Bellows depicted when few other artists would have been willing to depict a crowd of white men burning a black man at the stake.The 48 drawings, lithographs, and illustrations are informative and powerful. The essays and explanatory captions are excellent and enhance the viewing of the splendid work of a great American artist.
