Bo Bartlett, American, born 1955. Serena Sleeping, 2014. Graphite on paper. Framed: 23 x 26 1/2 in. (58.4 x 67.3 cm). The Collection of Bo Bartlett and Betsy Eby
Bo Bartlett: Forty Years of Drawing
July 17, 2021 - October 3, 2021
Graphics GalleryThis exhibition presents graphite drawings and gouache paintings spanning 40 years of Bo Bartlett’s career (from 1976 to 2016). Bartlett is an American realist with a modernist vision, and his artwork celebrates both the commonplace and the extraordinary. According to Bartlett, “The purpose of art is to wake up—to wake up to the numinous now, to the great unfolding of the mysterious universe that we are one with.” These works reveal an intimate peek into a side of the artist’s life and oeuvre that is rarely seen by the public. The works in this exhibition, created as studies for his paintings, are an inside look into the artistic process—and are themselves individual works. Educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Bartlett pushes the boundaries of the realist tradition with his multilayered images. Family and friends are the cast of characters that appear in his dreamlike works, some revealing intimate scenes between two people and others singular portraits.
From the Exhibition
Bo Bartlett, American, born 1955. Betsy May 28th 2009, 2009. Graphite on paper. Framed: 20 x 27 in. (50.8 x 68.6 cm). The Collection of Bo Bartlett and Betsy Eby
Bo Bartlett, American, born 1955. Betsy 7/23/7, 2007. Graphite on paper. Framed: 19 x 26 in. (48.3 x 66 cm). The Collection of Bo Bartlett and Betsy Eby
Bo Bartlett, American, born 1955. Bobby, 2019. Graphite on paper. Framed: 18 1/4 × 25 1/2 in. (46.4 × 64.8 cm). The Collection of Bo Bartlett and Betsy Eby
Bo Bartlett, American, born 1955. Britney, 2014. Pencil on paper. Framed: 22 × 29 1/2 in. (55.9 × 74.9 cm). The Collection of Bo Bartlett and Betsy Eby
Bo Bartlett, American, born 1955. Betsy at the Window Wheaton Island Maine, 2009. Pencil on paper. Framed: 19 1/2 × 27 in. (49.5 × 68.6 cm). The Collection of Bo Bartlett and Betsy Eby
Bo Bartlett, American, born 1955. Corset, 2019. Pencil on paper. Framed: 18 × 26 in. (45.7 × 66 cm). The Collection of Bo Bartlett and Betsy Eby
