Customer Reviews

George Bellows: American Artist (Writer's on Art)

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Most of us will know Bellows as the painter of Stag at Sharkey's, the fabulously active, almost abstract image of a boxing match. (collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art).

Oates sees George Bellows as a true American artist: always on a quest of discovery, individualistic, heroic. While not intended as a well-rounded exploration of Bellows, this rather short but intense book is a deep and strongly-felt critique of about 18 of his paintings. The selection of work seems to be hers alone; she chooses paintings that elicit true passion and interesting insights. Several interesting juxtapositions of American literature are in here, as well; all Oates' selection. These help place Bellows in American history and culture.

Interesting for the American Art History buff; may not be of great interest to anyone else. Could be useful as a "how to write art criticism" guide for Art History students.

16 vivid, small color plates are in the middle of the book, not inserted in with the relevant text.

From 'Stag at Sharkey's' to 'Firpo and Dempsey' George Bellows was best known as a painter of 'boxing'. One of America's most well- known boxing fans, Joyce Carol Oates shows how Bellows was not only dynamic in his paintings, but dynamic in his development as an artist. He moved from subject to subject , from the lower- east side brutalities to Maine coast seascapes, from realistic almost still- life like portraits to larger- than - life boxing scenes. Oates a dynamic and restless figure herself uses her broad knowledge of American life and culture to read Bellows as kind of transcendalist in oil, a Whitman of the canvass. She finds in his restlessness and ambition a largeness of spirit and seeking. She too writes illuminatingly about individual works of art.
While this work may seem to some hyped and exaggerated it bears within a certain mode of the American spirit, turbulent and dynamic.
The author seems to have found a subject which suits her soul. And she truly does justice and more to the artist whose work she describes and interprets.