Franklinton

The Columbus Museum of Art celebrates native son George Bellows

Apr 05, 2009

COLUMBUS MUSEUM OF ART CELEBRATES

LOCAL ARTIST GEORGE BELLOWS



(Columbus, OH) ?– The Columbus Museum of Art celebrates native son George Bellows this summer with a special exhibition of his drawings and lithographs. The Powerful Hand of George Bellows: Drawings from the Boston Public Library, on view July 13 through September 9, features works from Wiggin Collection and the Boston Public Library that have not been seen together since the 1950s. This exhibition is curated by Robert Conway, formerly Director of Associated American Artists and was organized by the Trust for Museum Exhibitions in Washington, D.C. in cooperation with the Boston Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts. Huntington National Bank and M/I Homes Foundation are the Lead Sponsors for this exhibition.



?“Bellows has always been admired for the virtuosic draftsmanship of his paintings,?” said Melissa Wolfe, CMA associate curator of American art. ?“This exhibition gives us an opportunity to study the depth and brilliance of this draftsmanship in his drawings, which not surprisingly have the bold presence of many of his paintings.?”



Bellows was known for his painting of urban scenes, and he was often linked with the Ash Can School. His meteoric rise to success began when he moved to New York City from Columbus, Ohio, in 1904. In the next five years, he rose from beginning art student to critical and commercial success, culminating in his election as associate of the National Academy of Design in 1909. He was a college drop-out at 22, member of the National Academy at 27, the country?’s most accomplished lithographer at 35, and dead of appendicitis at 43.



During his brief lifetime, Bellows was given major one-artist exhibitions at museums in Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Worcester, Cincinnati, Columbus and Rochester. Since his death in 1925, the country?’s most significant collections of American painting have granted Bellows a place among their most important artists, and celebrated his accomplishments in at least 20 major exhibitions. Bellows created an enormous body of work in his 21 years ?– more than 700 hundred paintings, almost 200 editions of lithographs and an equivalent number of drawings.



Best known for a relatively small number of controversial boxing images, he is equally notable for his contributions to American landscape painting, portraiture, and especially scenes of modern American life. Although his talent is most directly evident in his drawings, no one has yet paid them more than cursory attention. The Powerful Hand of George Bellows begins the long-overdue process of correcting this oversight.



The catalogue accompanying the exhibition was written by Guest Curator Robert Conway, independent art historian and founder of Without Walls-Museum Multimedia. It illustrates all 48 Wiggin drawings, and describes for the first time the ingenious combinations of graphic media Bellows used to create them. It also details the circumstances under which he made them, the specifics of his active career as a commercial artist and cartoonist underlying his more celebrated role as a painter. George Bellows was blessed with a quick wit and a quicker hand. Recorded in these drawings is a new understanding of the meteoric course along which his talents carried him.



The Trust for Museum Exhibitions is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit service organization committed to providing the finest in exhibition and technical support to museums and cultural centers throughout the United States and abroad. For more information, please visit the Trust?’s website at http://www.tme.org.



The Columbus Museum of Art creates great experiences with great art for everyone. The Columbus Foundation, the Greater Columbus Arts Council, and the Ohio Arts Council provide ongoing support. The Museum and the Museum Shop are open Tuesday through Sunday from 10:00 am to 5:30 pm, and until 8:30 pm every Thursday. The Palette Caf?© is open for lunch Tuesday through Sunday from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm. Museum admission is $6 for adults; $4 for seniors and students 6 and over; and free for members, children five and under and everyone on Sunday. For additional information, call 614-221-4848 or visit www.columbusmuseum.org.