George Wesley Bellows was an American realist painter, described by the Columbus Museum of Art as "the most acclaimed American artist of his generation." Known for his bold depiction of urban America, Bellows's New York scenes depicted the crudity and chaos of working-class people and neighbourhoods, and satirised the upper classes. From 1907 through 1915, he painted a series depicting New York City under snowfall, developing a powerful sense of light and visual texture: a stark contrast between the blue and white expanses of snow and the rough, grimy surfaces of city structures, set against the equally rough and grimy men clearing it away. Whether a cultural portrayal or a scenic view of downtown New York City, Bellows's works attempted to define what was real. The paintings show the making of the country through the daily livelihoods and desires of the average American, depicting subjects whose lives were laboured by the fantasy of the American dream. His realism depicted what was real, but remained engulfed by its apparition — the phantom of the dream.
George Bellows was fascinated by the ongoing metamorphosis of his country. Bellows's paintings were a daring and original record of early 20th-century America which chronicled America's pursuits and passions. His subjects were the illicit boxing matches, the scrappy street urchins who lived in the slums, the massive construction sites that transformed Manhattan, and the hardworking men and women who kept the American dream functional — the section of urban America kept out of the frame. Inspired by his teacher Robert Henri, Bellows painted the world around him, the realities of the rapidly changing cities and their people, clearly challenging the conservative practices of the National Academy, which linked him with the anti-academic art of Robert Henri and the Eight, yet he remained popular even amongst arch-conservatives.
Two paintings, Stag at Sharkey's and Forty-two Kids, open onto the world of America's non-represented faces. In both, the viewer finds themselves inside the frame of the image, taking part in and witnessing the pleasures of the average urban American.
Stag at Sharkey's (1909)
Stag at Sharkey's (1909) is one of Bellows's boxing series paintings, where he honed in on the city's illicit boxing matches with 'the eye of the sportswriter'. The composition of "Stag" is perfectly balanced: the planted leg on the left and the referee's arm extending linearly on the right from the sides of a pyramid, whose foundation is naturally the mat. The boxers violently collide in the middle, like two forces of nature unwilling to give. The boxer on the right, painted in streaking brushstrokes, is a curling mass who meets his swooping opponent in a forceful crush. Where the heads meet there is but a red, fleshy, bloody pulp. In the early 20th century, boxing became the centre of professional sport in America. The game was brutal and corrupt. New York State legislature banned it, repealed the ban, and banned it again. But boxing matches between members remained legal in private athletic clubs. This loophole was made use of: by giving the fighters one-night membership in the clubs, the shows went on. Bellows, an athlete himself back in his university days, was drawn to boxing. The fighters in his paintings look like slabs of meat, in contrast to Thomas Eakins's Salutat, where the boxer is shown as the winner, standing in the classical posture, raising his hand to salute the audience in the style of a gladiator. Bellows modernised the subject, his furious brushstrokes and thickly applied paint resonating with the ferocious punches. The faces in the crowd watching the on-stage brutality are just as barbaric, their expressions ranging from violent ecstasy to amusement, horror and anguish. As the audience of the painting, the viewer finds themselves taking part in the show, and it becomes difficult to separate the viewer's own position from the immorality of the game, since the painter places that position inside the painting, amidst the savage crowd. "I am not interested in the morality of prize fighting but let me say that the atmosphere around the fighters is a lot more immoral than the fighters themselves."; Bellows said.
Forty-two Kids (1907)
There really are 42 kids in George Bellows's "Forty-two Kids." It was not a respectable picture. The boys are naked, they are skinny-dipping. One of the boys is peeing. Two are smoking. The title bears the turn-of-the-century slang "kids," which referred to roaming young hooligans, who were frequently the offspring of working-class immigrants living in Lower East Side tenements of New York City. A sharp observer of urban life, George Bellows sketched his streetwise subjects with characteristic vigour and economy of means. In 1908, the Lippincott Prize was awarded by the Philadelphia Academy of the Fine Arts, then promptly withdrawn, for fear that it would be an impermissible insult to the donor of the prize. When asked if the nakedness of the boys was a subject of concern, Bellows had promptly replied, "no, it was the naked painting that they feared." The painter strove to expose conditions of life and social relations, and his empathy for his subjects is palpable. Bellows treated the kids' disreputability affectionately, painting their lives with shades of warm browns and greys, radiating humour and human warmth.
The world depicted in Bellows's paintings — the illegal boxing fights, the working boys on a ramshackle dock — was a universe away from the sea-side holidays favoured by the impressionists who were his predecessors. Bellows was one of the organisers of the Armory Show of 1913, which introduced European modernist art to American artists and critics. The show had a marked influence on Bellows, and later he supported many of the avant-garde art organisations. His paintings belong to the category of American realism, but he was a true modernist. His robust and vivacious style aligned with America's fascination with the masculine and energetic spirit, the ethos of the American dream — "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," the never-ending race of making something of oneself. His paintings showed the stark contrast between affluent New Yorkers and the working poor, whose predicaments were those of the country's people. George Bellows's paintings brought out the realities of the human condition as the nation pushed its way to the centre stage of the 20th century — the real of the American dream.
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References:
(1) George Bellows - Biography, National Gallery of Art, archived from the original on June 29, 2012, retrieved August 7, 2011
The Art of Boxing: George Bellows, by Shaun Randol.
Bellows The Boxing Pictures, published by National Gallery of Art, Washington.
George Wesley Bellows, Biography of American Genre Painter, New York Ashcan School, www.visual-arts-cork.com