George Bellows @ The National Gallery Of Art

This was the first George Bellows retrospective that I have ever experienced, and it just rocked my world. In his brief 42 years on this planet, he grabbed the world he saw, the world he experienced, the world he loved, and he put it down on canvas with a passion and vibrancy that still resonates like the crack of a whip.

Chronologically ordered, the exhibition leads you through the artist's life as he lived it. It was a rich and iconic life based on his subjects, and I won't even scratch the surface here. What I hope I will do is inspire anyone who reads this to explore his life, and this exhibit, if you can.

Forty-two Kids, 1907, oil on canvas

This image dominates the first room. A tour de force place to start and a brilliant painting on so many levels, not least of which is the title. "Forty-two Kids" begs the viewer to confirm the count and allows him/her to linger over the work without fear of being accused of prurient interests. It is quite an insight into Bellow's sense of humor and decor. It is also a theme that he will return again.

Paddy Flanagan, 1908, oil on canvas

A subsequent gallery contained images of his early portraiture. He was a young man living in a tumultuous metropolis at the turn of the 20th century, and he found himself drawn to the people around him. Often times they were adolescents. The gift of the portraitist is to illicit a deeper meaning and truer essence from their subject, and in this work I was most curious. What was his point (of view) here? The skinny physique? The mop of hair? The buckteeth, large ears, drowsy eyes? Is this a true representation of a person, or a type? You have to love a painting that engenders more questions than it gives you ready answers.

And yet my thoughts were confirmed in various other works in which a Paddy-esque youth appeared.

New York, 1911, oil on canvas

Here is a painting of his adopted home, New York City. It's a composite of many ideas placed in basically a real location. Like the portrait, it feels archetypal, but unlike the portrait, it was painted from memory--which is generally how Bellows worked.

While I admired this painting a group of elder hostel participants flooded into the gallery with their docent and so I took advantage of the opportunity to eaves drop. She went into elaborate discourse over the melding of the modern and the soon to be antiquated images in the painting. She spoke of the symbolism of the sliver of sky, and the characteristically ambitious nature of the composition. But what she completely failed to point out were the actual words found the painting. Study the advertisements on the walls of the buildings and you will read "Clean, Clean, Blood and Clean". Now isn't that more fascinating?

An Island In The Sea, 1911, oil on canvas

Bellows ouvre continued to expand with the invitation of his teacher and friend Robert Henri to spend a summer on Monhegan Island off of the coast of Maine. Among the works illustrating this period of his life, I found this one to be particularly profound.

Billy Sunday, 1923, Lithograph of paper

While best known for his paintings, Bellows also excelled in drawing. This image of the Christian revivalist, Billy Sunday demonstrates both his amazing sense of composition and his acute ability to convey an emotional idea.

The exhibition ends with a collection of his final works. Paintings made within a couple of years of his untimely death from appendicitis at the age of 42. They were frankly odd to me.

The White Horse, 1922, oil on canvas

Many, like this one depicted a style and ideas far removed from the robust, gritty, physicality of his earlier works.

I left this exhibit unsure how I felt about a lot of what I had seen, but eager to see it again.