George Bellows: American Life in Print

George Bellows (1882–1925) was a painter, illustrator, and printmaker. His career established, in late 1915 he turned to lithography. Over the next nine years he almost single-handedly elevated lithography in America to a fine art. The inherent flexibility of the process, its potential for drawing in vigorous strokes and its richness of tone were well suited to his style. the subjects that fascinated him range from intimate studies of his family and friends to snap shots of American life, the atrocities of World War I, and what first caught the public’s attention, Boxing. All were new and undeniably American. George Bellows; American Life in Print features two essays: “Bellows, Advocate for Lithography” with in depth examination of sixty-six lithographs and drawings. A second essay explores the artist’s rise to fame in “Bellows and the ‘Art Palace of the West,’” focusing on his long term relationship with the Cincinnati Art Museum and it's “Annual Exhibition of American Art.”