Visited the George Bellows exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts this week, looked forward to seeing his painting of boxers in the flesh but was surprised that I came away feeling I had a preference for his drawings rather than his paintings.
One in particular I liked was Election Night, Times square ... sense of movement and crowds with no more than roughly ten people rendered with any real detail in the foreground. Also liked in this drawing the balance of tone, leaning towards the dark (I guess it is election night) which allows him to pull out areas of light, for example the projected light in the centre and the street lamp in the foreground.
Also liked the drawing entitled Street Fight, the stance of the one of the boys about to fight telling you exactly what you needed to know in order to read the situation.
If I was forced to put a couple of his painting on my lounge wall, then I would opt for Little Girl in White, 1907 (large portrait of a girl in what appears to be very few big loose brush strokes) and Rain on the River, 1908 (again like the expressive mark making employed here and the minimal use of colour... I like grey in my paintings). Could probably find room for Pennsylvania Excavation, 1907, too... yes definitely preferred his early works
My oil pastel study of Rain on the River
No comments:
Post a Comment