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. He 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.

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, his island summer home in Maine, his home in Pennsylvania or the surroundings of his studio and residence in Washington state, they represent a deeper, mythical concept of the archetypal, universal home.”

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

Featured Exhibitions with Somerville Manning Gallery

2019         Seattle Art Fair, Seattle, WA

2018         Seattle Art Fair, Seattle, WA

2018         Philadelphia Antiques Show, Philadelphia, PA

2016         Behind the Easel: The Unique Voices of 20 Contemporary Representational Painters

2014         Philadelphia Antiques Show, Philadelphia, PA

2010         American Masters: Art of the 19th, 20th, & 21st Centuries

2009         Five Artists of Accomplishment from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

2009         American Green

2007         Travelogue

Selected Solo Exhibitions

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, 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

2013         The University of Mississippi Museum, Oxford, MS

2011          A Survey of Paintings, W.C. Bradley Co. Museum, Columbus, GA

2011          Sketchbooks, Journals and Studies, Columbus Bank & Trust, Columbus, 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         Still Point, Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, ME

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         Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC

2003         Columbus Museum, Columbus GA

Selected Group Exhibitions

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

2019          Bo Bartlett and Betsy Eby, Ithan Substation No. 1, Villanova, 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           Nelson Shanks and His Influence: Past, Present and Future, Stanek Gallery, PA

2017          PoetsArtists, Arcadia Contemporary, CA

2017          The New Baroque, Booth Gallery, NY

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

2015          Art Basel, Ameringer McEnery & Yohe, Miami Beach, FL

2013          Nocturnes: Romancing the Night, National Arts Club, New York, NY

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         Thriving in Seattle: A Retrospective, GAGE Academy of Art, Seattle, WA

2010         private (dis)play, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY

2009         The Armory Show, New York, NY

2009         Art Chicago, Chicago, IL

2009         PAFA Alumni Invitational: Legacies, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

2008         Los Angeles Art Show, Los Angeles, CA

2008         Pulse Miami, Miami, FL

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

Education

1986            New York University, Certificate in Filmmaking

1976 – 81    Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Certificate of Fine Art

1986            University of Pennsylvania, Liberal Arts

1977 – 78    Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Anatomy Studies

Selected Awards and Honors

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
The Brandywine Art Museum, Chadds Ford, PA
Mennello Museun 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
Hamilton Square, Washington, D.C.
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
Terrell Place, Washington D.C.
United States Mint, Philadelphia, PA
Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Seven Bridges Foundation, Greenwich, CT
Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, AR

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