Bo Bartlett

La Famille de Saltimbanques 1905 Pablo Picasso

Mon, 20 May 2013 10:31:13 -0400

La Famille de Saltimbanques 1905 Pablo Picasso

Jackson Pollock, born January 28, 1912 in Cody, Wyoming, moved...

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 09:52:03 -0500

Jackson Pollock, born January 28, 1912 in Cody, Wyoming, moved to New York in 1930 where he studied with (and babysat for) Thomas Hart Benton. From 1938 to 1942 Pollock worked for the WPA. In 1943 Peggy Guggenheim signed him, providing him with a monthly stipend. In 1945 he married fellow painter Lee Krasner and they moved to the little house in East Hampton. It was here, on the floor of the small barn studio, that he began his drip paintings. In 1947 Guggenheim handed Pollock off to Betty Parsons http://www.theartstory.org/gallery-betty-parsons.htm Parsons didn’t keep Pollock on a stipend. 1947 to 1950 was his most prolific period, the majority of his most important work came from these years. In 1949, the year of his first major sold out show with Parsons, LIFE magazine published the four page spread which asked “Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?” His fame was instant, producing jealousies and rivalries. After his celebrity, his work changed, his battle with alcoholism worsened, his decline was rapid. He had stopped painting by the time of his death in 1956 at the age of 44.

His influence on painting is legendary. Pollock’s influence on his contemporaries is fascinating, particularly on the work of Andrew Wyeth. Wyeth (five years younger than Pollock) was fiercely competitive. When LIFE asked the question, Wyeth answered loudly. Pollocks drip technique was employed and became Wyeth’s splatter technique. This splattering is seen clearly in the grasses and foregrounds of most of Wyeth’s paintings after the early 1950’s. By 1965 Wyeth had his own article in LIFE magazine, he was quoted as saying, “My God, when you really begin to peer into something, a simple object, and realize the profound meaning of that thing - if you have an emotion about it, there’s no end.”

(pictured, ‘One: Number 31 - 1950. my favorite Pollock, at MOMA)

Sometimes the best moments are the real moments, not the...

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 08:59:06 -0500

Sometimes the best moments are the real moments, not the scripted ones or the lip-synced ones. As Barack Obama turned on the Capitol steps to look out at the crowd on the mall one last time a photographer snapped this photo. It couldn’t have been better composed by a classical painter. The darkest and lightest contrast at the center of the image, surrounded by hits of vibrant color (some of which also happen to be the attire of family members), guards saluting in the wings, figures ascending and torquing and turning… A perfect composition. One of the most real moments of the day providing the greatest picture of the day.

video
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/at-second-inauguration-obama-relishes-the-smaller-moments/2013/01/21/1f482a2a-63d4-11e2-85f5-a8a9228e55e7_story.html

Source @BarackObama

detail of Pietro Annigoni’s 1955 #royalportrait of Queen...

Sun, 13 Jan 2013 09:06:58 -0500

detail of Pietro Annigoni’s 1955 #royalportrait of Queen Elizabeth II

This is how to paint a #RoyalPortrait - by the birthday boy John...

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 17:17:15 -0500

This is how to paint a #RoyalPortrait - by the birthday boy John Singer Sargent - Lady Agnew 1892-1893

Official portraiture is particularly difficult. The artist must...

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 10:41:35 -0500

Official portraiture is particularly difficult. The artist must balance the sitter’s public persona and private personality & character. My favorite example of a successful official portrait is Pietro Annigoni’s 1955 portrait of a youthful Queen Elizabeth II.

Lucian Freud (1922-2011) would have celebrated his 90th birthday...

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 13:37:48 -0500

Kate and Lucian in bed

'Nude Portrait' 2002

Lucian Freud 'bird tattoos' ink on Kate Moss

Vanity Fair December 2012

Lucian Freud

GrandPa Sigmund

Lucian Freud (1922-2011) would have celebrated his 90th birthday December 8th. The date passed virtually unnoticed over the weekend. But his muse and model Kate Moss, continues to capture the spotlight… and his memory continues to follow her everywhere she goes; in the form two small bird tattoos that Freud inked himself just above her derriere. Moss, featured in December’s Vanity Fair, famously posed nude for Freud while she was pregnant in 2002. The painting sold at auction at Christie’s London in 2005 for 9.35 million. While Lucian and GrandPa Sigmund smile down on it all.

‘The Big Day’ 2012 oil on linen 82x82 will be at...

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 14:37:00 -0500

‘The Big Day’ 2012 oil on linen 82x82 will be at @sevenmiami @ppowgallery

Happy Thanksgiving! Norman Rockwell’s not-so-famous 1923...

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 12:27:58 -0500

Happy Thanksgiving!

Norman Rockwell’s not-so-famous 1923 Thanksgiving painting.

Will Barnet (1911- 2012) was a major influence on many students...

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 13:48:05 -0500

Will Barnet Sanctum 1976

Vincent Desiderio 2009

Will Barnet

Brett Bigbee Joe and James 2001

Will Barnett Peter Grimes 1983

Bo Bartlett Between the Ledges 2006

Will Barnet (1911- 2012) was a major influence on many students at the Pennsylvania Academy in the 1970’s. He took the train down from New York once a week to teach his advanced afternoon painting class. Vincent Desiderio and Brett Bigbee were two students who were closely aligned with Will at the time. Barnet gave his students permission. He showed us a way to explore figuration at a time when abstraction reigned. He also encouraged us to get our work to New York. For those of our generation, in Philadelphia at that time, he was one of the earliest painters to have moved through abstraction and return back to figuration. Late in life he returned to abstraction. He was a great painter and printmaker. He continued to push himself and explore the limits of his art to the end. He passed yesterday. He was 101.

The New York Times obituary aptly ends with…

Mr. Barnet’s first encounters with art were the carvings of skeletal heads and other images on colonial tombstones in a local cemetery in Beverly.

“These were mementos of what had taken place,” he recalled. “At the age of 10 or 12, I discovered that being an artist would give me an ability to create something which would live on after death.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/arts/design/will-barnet-painter-dies-at-101.html?_r=0

The Will Barnet website asks that in lieu of flowers, a donation can be made to The Art Students League of New York

http://www.theartstudentsleague.org/Give.aspx

http://willbarnet.wordpress.com/

Congratulations America

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 10:52:00 -0500

Congratulations America

20 really good reasons to VOTE!

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 13:27:18 -0400

20 reasons to Vote!

There are at least 20 good reasons to Vote!

I’ve made a simple list, 10 reasons to vote against ex-Governor Romney and 10 reasons to vote for President Obama. Here ya go…

Ten Reasons to Not Vote for Romney

1. Bain Capital

2. The Caymen Islands

3. His undisclosed Tax Returns

4. He is the 1%

5. He would kill FEMA

6. He would kill The Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare)

7. He would kill Big Bird

8. Paul Ryan

9. Regressive thinking exemplified in the Republican party platform

10. He is just a finger licker waiting for the wind

Ten Reasons to Vote For Obama

1. He ended the War in Iraq as promised

2. He hunted down and killed Osama Bin Laden as promised

3. He is withdrawing us from Afghanistan as promised

4. He passed Health care reform (aka The Affordable Care Act /ObamaCare) as promised

5. He supports same sex marriage

6. He supports Women’s Rights

7. He has strengthened Wall Street oversight

8. He steered the economy back from the brink (Detroit car companies)

9. He represents a new America to the World (after the failed Republican policies of the past)

10. Even in this partisan political environment, through his patience and forbearance, he has clearly earned a second term.

Pierre Bonnard born October 3rd 1867. Known best for his post...

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 10:18:00 -0400

Pierre Bonnard born October 3rd 1867. Known best for his post impressionist interiors, and on twitter as @TylerGreenDC ‘s avatar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Bonnard

Alma Thomas, born September 22 1891 in Columbus, Georgia....

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 08:51:00 -0400

Alma Thomas, born September 22 1891 in Columbus, Georgia. At 16 she moved to Washington, DC with her family, where she attended Howard University. She received an MFA from Columbia in 1934. She was a member of the Washington Color School, which included Kenneth Nolan, Morris Louis and Sam Gilliam. She became the first African American woman to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum in 1972. I grew up looking at her work in The Columbus Museum. As a teen, I thought of her as a ‘local artist’, but, she lived her entire adult life in the same home in Washington, DC where her parents had moved when she was 16. Thomas died in February 1978. In 2009, Michelle Obama chose two Alma Thomas paintings from the Hirshhorn to decorate the walls of the White House. New York Times art critic, Holland Cotter wrote that the choice of Alma Thomas for the Obama White House was the perfect choice because her work is “forward-looking without being radical; post-racial but also race-conscious.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alma_Thomas

”Hiroshima’ was painted in my Pennsylvania studio...

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 09:26:48 -0400

'Hiroshima' Bo Bartlett 1994

Enola Gay

Little Boy (Hiroshima) Fat Man (Nagasaki)

Hiroshima

”Hiroshima’ was painted in my Pennsylvania studio while on a PEW Fellowship in 1994. There were a series of war pictures. Originally, it was set just after the bomb hit, but while working on the painting and reading John Hersey’s “Hiroshima” I decided to back time out, to the moment before the first atomic bomb was dropped, to preserve the moment. It was a beautiful morning in Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6th 1945. The all-clear had sounded, people had gone back to their usual days tasks. One woman (as recorded by Hersey) was watching her neighbor tear down his house. The mayor of Hiroshima had asked people along certain routes to voluntarily tear down their homes to prevent the spread of fire in case a bomb was dropped by the Americans. As the woman watched her neighbor tearing shingles off his roof, her children sleeping on mats on the floor behind her, 8:15 am, suddenly a bright yellow flash, fifteen miuntes later, she is digging out from under her roof, she stands to find that everything in every direction is gone, her neighbor’s house, her house, her children, the city. In my painting, I represent the woman in a field, a little boy behind her holding a carp kite, the symbol of courage. She is looking up to the sky, to the East, to the rising sun, to the sound of a distant plane, the Enola Gay. Ground zero is the vanishing point of the painting, today, one of the only remaining structures from the bombing, it is the site of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki

http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/index_e2.html

‘The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors Even’...

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 10:33:15 -0400

‘The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors Even’ Marcel Duchamp 1915-1923 Philadelphia Museum of Art

Happy Birthday Thomas Eakins, Philly’s greatest painter,...

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 12:43:58 -0400

Happy Birthday Thomas Eakins, Philly’s greatest painter, born July 25, 1844.

Some details and inspirations of ‘Radio Flyer’, the...

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 17:01:36 -0400

Radio Flyer 2012 detail

Radio Flyer 2012 detail 1

Bouguereau

Heartland 1994

Norman Rockwell 1926

Some details and inspirations of ‘Radio Flyer’, the working title of my latest painting. The head of the girl was inspired by childhood photos of @BetsyEby , not from one single reference, she was definitely morphed/viewed through a Rockwellian-Bougereauian-Brooks Shieldsian filter. There are times when we want to visit anew a generalized concept. In 1994, I painted my youngest son, Eliot, in ‘Heartland’. Everyone is really a disguised self-portrait. Little Bo/Eliot was busy carrying around his switches at the time. Now Little Betsy is on her way, tender, but, ready for the adventure ahead.

July 14th (Le Quatorze Juillet) In celebration of Bastille...

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 12:56:21 -0400

'Homeland' 1994

David 'Oath of the Tennis Court' 1791

Delacroix 'Liberty Storming...' 1830

St. Lo

St. Lo today

Bartholdi 'Statue of Liberty' 1886

July 14th (Le Quatorze Juillet) In celebration of Bastille Day… my painting entitled Homeland, 1994. In the painting the people are riding upon an allied transport truck back to their home village of St. Lo in Normandy. The village was totally destroyed by allied forces during the bombardments of Operation Overlord in the Summer of 1944. Upon entering the village a commanding officer reported, “We liberated the hell out of this place.” The destroyed village is thought to be the setting for Samuel Beckett’s post apocalyptic vision in ‘Waiting for Godot’. In his poem ‘St.Lo’ 1946, Beckett writes of the “old mind ghost-forsaken”. In the painting Homeland, the people are returning excitedly; they are not yet aware of the destruction which has come with their villages liberation. July seems virulent and verdant for democracy. Still we blow things up and celebrate. The chaos and resolution of revolution resound in Jacques-Louis David’s painting, ‘Oath of the Tennis Court’ 1791 (Louvre) which specifically represents the July 14th events leading up to the beginning of democracy in Europe. Eugene Delacroix’s ‘Liberty Storming the Barricades’ also known as ‘Liberty Leading the People’ is a visual metaphor filled with hope and destruction. The painting represents July 28th 1830, when the people rose up to overthrow the Bourbon king. The half nude figure of Liberty is the poster girl for freedom. You may recognize her gesture as the forbearer of the idealized pose in Frederic Bartholdi’s 1886 ‘Statue of Liberty’ (‘Liberty Enlightening the World’) who stands a bit more modestly draped in New York Harbor.

Andrew Wyeth, American, born July 12, 1917 ‘Snow...

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 20:32:51 -0400

Andrew Wyeth, American, born July 12, 1917 ‘Snow Hill’ The title of this late tempera was derived from the moment the great whale is spotted in Herman Melville’s classic. “There she blows!—there she blows! A hump like a snow-hill! It is Moby Dick!” All of Wyeth’s favorite models dance around a maypole atop Kuerner’s hill in ChaddsFord, Pennsylvania.