Bo Bartlett

About

Born in Columbus, Georgia, Bo Bartlett studied in Florence, Italy with Ben Long IV, a student of Italian Fresco painter Pietro Annigoni, as well as Ives Gammel in Boston and Aaron Shickler and Harvey Dinnerstein in New York. often used family members as inspiration and models for his paintings.  In 1975, they moved to Philadelphia, where he studied realist painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.  His modernist vision is depicted in scenes set in his childhood home in Georgia, as well as other homes in Maine, Pennsylvania and Washington State, and his subjects embody themes such as life and death, memory, and passage through time.

His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including the US Artists American Fine Art Show in Philadelphia, PA; the Edie Caldwell Gallery in Sausalito, CA; the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, ME; and the Columbus Museum of Art in Columbus, GA.  He also has received many awards, such as a PEW Fellowship in the Arts, Philadelphia Museum of Art Award, Cecilia Beaux Memorial Portraits Prize, and a Packard Prize from the PAFA.  His work can be found in many public collections, such as the Greenville County Museum of Art in Greenville, SC; the La Salle University Museum of Art in Philadelphia, PA; the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in Santa Barbara, CA; and the Hunter Museum of American Art, TN.

Bo Bartlett is an American realist with a modernist vision. His paintings are well within the tradition of American realism as defined by artists such as Thomas Eakins and Andrew Wyeth. Like these artists, Bartlett looks at America’s heart—its land and its people—and describes the beauty he finds in everyday life. His paintings celebrate the underlying epic nature of the commonplace and the personal significance of the extraordinary.

“Bo Bartlett is an American realist with a modernist vision. His paintings are well within the tradition of American realism as defined by artists such as Thomas Eakins and Andrew Wyeth. Like these artists, Bartlett looks at America’s heart—its land and its people—and describes the beauty he finds in everyday life. His paintings celebrate the underlying epic nature of the commonplace and the personal significance of the extraordinary.

Bartlett was educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where realist principles must be grasped before modernist ventures are encouraged. He pushes the boundaries of the realist tradition with his multilayered imagery. Life, death, passage, memory, and confrontation coexist easily in his world. Family and friends are the cast of characters that appear in his dreamlike narrative works. Although the scenes are set around his childhood home in Georgia or his island summer home in Maine, they represent a deeper, mythical concept of the archetypal, universal home.”

–Tom Butler, excerpt from the book Bo Bartlett, Heartland

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2022         Earthly Matters, The Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC

2021         Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY

2021         Weber Fine Art, Greenwich, CT

2019         Bo Bartlett – Forty Years of Drawing, The Florence Academy of Art, Jersey City, NJ

2018          Retrospective, Bo Bartlett Center, Columbus, GA

2017          Paintings from the Outpost, Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland, ME

2017          Mennello Museum of American Art and Orlando Museum, FL

2016          Ameringer McEnery Yohe, New York, NY

2014         Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA

2010         Paintings of Home, PPOW Gallery, New York, NY

2009         Bo Bartlett, Forum Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2009         Bo Bartlett, Ogden Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA

2007         Travelogue, Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE

2007         Still Point, Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, ME

2006         Manifest Destiny, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA

2004         Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

2004         Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA

2004         Innocence Found, DFN Gallery, New York, NY

2004         Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA

2003         Columbus Museum, Columbus GA

1996         F.A.N. Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

1990         Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC

1986         The More Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

1982         Marion Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

Selected Group Exhibitions

2022        COMPETERE: an exhibition of artist couples, Bo Bartlett Center, Columbus, GA

2022         Highlighting Contemporary Art in Georgia: Picture This, Lyndon House Art Center, Athens, GA

2021        Extra Ordinary, Magic Mystery, and Imagination in American Realism, Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA

2020          A Telling Instinct: John James Audubon and Contemporary Art, Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC

2019          Bo Bartlett and Betsy Eby, Ithan Substation No. 1, Villanova, PA

2019          Innovation and Vitality, Avery Galleries, Bryn Mawr, PA

2018           Belief in Giants, Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY

2018           The Serious and the Smirk, Brandywine River Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, PA

2017           Uncompromising Visions, Cerulean Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2017          The New Baroque, Booth Gallery, New York, NY

2016         Behind the Easel: The Unique Voices of 20 Contemporary Representational Painters, Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE

2016          The Things We Carry: Contemporary Art in the South, Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC

2016          Rockwell and Realism in an Abstract World, Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA

2016         Truth & Vision: 21st Century Realism, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE

2013         The Philadelphia Story, Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC

2013         The Outwin Boochever 2013 Portrait Competition Exhibition, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC

2012         Perception of Self, Forum Gallery, New York, NY

2010         American Masters: Art of the 19th, 20th, & 21st Centuries, Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE

2009         Five Artists of Accomplishment from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE

2009         American Green, Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE

2007         Travelogue, Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE

2007         Andrew Wyeth in Context, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA

2003         Transforming the Commonplace, Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA

1999        Changing Faces: Contemporary Portraiture, Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York, NY

1991        Ex-Patriots, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, GA

1988        New York Inspired: Past and Present, John Szoke Gallery, New York, NY

Selected Awards and Honors

2019         Georgia Fellow – 2019 South Arts Prize, Columbia, SC
2019         Atelier Focus Fellowship, Air Serenbe, Atlanta, GA
2017         1858 Prize for Southern Contemporary Art, the Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC
2014         Columbus State University Honorary Alumni Award
2013         Brookstone School Distinguished Alumnus Award
2005         Ursinus College Distinguished Artist Award
1996         CINE Golden Eagle Award (for Snow Hill)
1996         Gold Apple Award – National Educational Media Network Awards (for Snow Hill)
1996         Best Documentary – Hot Springs DFF (for Snow Hill)
1996         Best Biography – CINDY Awards (for Snow Hill)
1996         Best Documentary – Philadelphia FVF (for Snow Hill)
1994         PEW Fellowship in the Arts
1987         Philadelphia Museum of Art Award
1987         Museum Merit Award, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, GA
1981         Benjamin Lanard Memorial Award, South Street Art Supply Prize
1981         Museum Merit Award, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, GA
1980         First Thouron Prize
1980         Consolidated/Drake Press Award
1980         Eleanor Grey Still Life Prize
1979         Cecelia Beaux Memorial Portrait Prize
1979         First Purchase Award, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, GA
1978         Charles Toppan Prize, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
1977         Packard Prize, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

Selected Public Collections

Bo Bartlett Center, Columbus, GA
Mennello Museum of American Art, FL
Ogden Museum of Southern Art, LA
Academy of Music, Philadelphia, PA
The Carpenter’s Union Hall, Washington D.C.
The Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, GA
Curtis Institute, Philadelphia, PA
Denver Museum of Art, Denver, CO
Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA
Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
Hunter Museum of American Art, TN
La Salle University Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
McCormick Place Metropolis Pier and Exposition Authority, South Hall, Chicago, IL
Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA
Office of the Governor, Harrisburg, PA
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, PA
United States Mint, Philadelphia, PA
Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Seven Bridges Foundation, Greenwich, CT
Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, AR
Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA

Education

1986            New York University, Certificate in Filmmaking
1980 – 81    University of Pennsylvania, Liberal Arts
1977 – 78    Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Anatomy Studies
1976 – 81    Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Certificate of Fine Art

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