Bo Bartlett

La Pequena Novia

oil on board

24 x 24 inches

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“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

2018         Seattle Art Fair, Seattle, WA

Philadelphia Antiques Show

2014         Philadelphia Antiques Show

2010         American Masters

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

2009         American Green

2007         Travelogue

Selected Solo Exhibitions

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         USArtists, Philadelphia, PA

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

2008         USArtists, Philadelphia, PA

2007         Still Point, Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, ME

2007         USArtists, Philadelphia, PA

2004         Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

2004         Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA

2004         Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA

2003         Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC

2003         Columbus Museum, Columbus GA

Selected Group Exhibitions

2018           Belief in Giants: Miles McEnery Gallery, NY

2018           Trust the Process, Gallery 222, Malvern, PA

2018           Seattle Art Fair, Somerville Manning Gallery

2018           The Serious and the Smirk, Somerville Manning Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2018           Objects of Desire, Bernaducci Gallery, New York, NY

2018           Artists by Artists, Forum Gallery, New York, NY

2018           Philadelphia Antiques & Art Show, Somerville Manning Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

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

2018           White Out, Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland, ME

2017           Nelson Shanks and His Influence: Past, Present and Future, Stanek Gallley, PA

2017           Paintguide, Booth Gallery, NY

2017          Uncompromising Visions, Cerulean Gallery, PA

2017          PoetsArtists, Arcadia Contemporary, CA

2017          The New Baroque, Booth Gallery, NY

2017         Big Art. Small Canvas, RJD Gallery, NY

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

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

2016         Seattle Art Fair, Ameringer McEnery Yohe

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

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

2015          Art Basel, Miami Beach, Ameringer McEnery & Yohe

2015          American Masters, Somerville Manning Gallery, DE

2014          Art Chicago, Ameringer McEnery & Yohe

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

2013          Best of the Northwest: Selected Paintings from the Permanent Collection,           Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA

2010         Thriving in Seattle: A Retrospective, GAGE Academy of Art, Seattle, WA

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

2010         Figure as Narrative, Columbus State University, Columbus, GA

2010         The Figure – Then and Now, Delaware County Community College, Media, PA

2009         Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA

2009         private (dis)play, Center of Creative Arts, St. Louis, MO

2009         The Armory Show, New York, NY

2009         Art Chicago, Chicago, IL

2009         Portsmouth Museum of Fine Art, Portsmouth, NH

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

2008         Art Chicago, Chicago, IL

2008         Los Angeles Art Show, Los Angeles, CA

2008         Pulse Miami, Miami, FL

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

2007         Pulse Miami, Miami, FL

2003         Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA

1999         Indomitable Spirits: The Figure at the End of the Century, The Art Institute of Southern California, Laguna Beach, CA

1998-99   Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX

1996         The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Kansas City, MO

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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