Artist of the day: Artist of the day, April 27, 2020: Bo Bartlett, an American painter (#979)

Monday, April 27, 2020

Artist of the day, April 27, 2020: Bo Bartlett, an American painter (#979)

Bo Bartlett (1955) is an American realist painter with a modernist vision. He was born James William Bartlett III. At the age of 18, he traveled to Florence, Italy where he studied mural painting. In 1974 he returned to the United States. He moved to Philadelphia in 1975. In 2004, Bartlett traveled around the world before moving to Seattle, Washington, in 2005. During his time in the Pacific Northwest, Bartlett met artist Betsy Eby, and the two were married on Wheaton Island in 2007. Bartlett and Eby currently live and paint on Wheaton Island, Maine in summer, and in Bartlett’s hometown of Columbus, Georgia in the winter. In 2018 they opened the Bo Bartlett Center, an 18,425 square foot interactive gallery space at Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia.

Bartlett’s parents, Opal and Bill Bartlett (James William Bartlett Jr.), were from Columbus. His father was a woodworker and furniture designer, and his mother was a medical librarian.

Bartlett’s experience in Florence and his exposure to the paintings of the Italian Renaissance Masters set him on a course to explore figurative painting. Upon his return to the United States, Bartlett studied at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and then the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He received a Certificate of Fine Art from PAFA in 1980. During this period, he studied anatomy at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, mirroring the approach of the 19th-century realist painter, Thomas Eakins. In 1986, Bartlett received a Certificate in Filmmaking from New York University. The influence of film is apparent in Bartlett’s work. Cinematic scale, lighting, and narrative staging are important elements throughout his career.

Bartlett’s experience in filmmaking led him to connect with Betsy Wyeth in 1992, to embark upon a film about the life and work of her husband, Andrew Wyeth. The film collaboration marked the beginning of Bartlett's relationship with Wyeth as a lifelong friend. The connection between Bartlett and the Wyeths was formed during a period in which Bartlett was questioning his path as an artist, after several bad reviews by prominent New York critics. Andrew and Betsy Wyeth encouraged Bartlett in his work, and to continue to paint what he knows. Bartlett traveled with the Wyeths to Maine, where they had several islands on which they lived and worked. In 1998 Bartlett purchased Wheaton Island, Maine, where he now lives and works every summer.
Work

Bo Bartlett's paintings are inspired by American Realism as defined by artists such as Thomas Eakins, Edward Hopper, Grant Wood, Norman Rockwell, and Andrew Wyeth. Like these artists, Bartlett looks at America's land and people to depict the beauty he finds in everyday life. He paints in the Grand Manner of the academic painting of the 18th and 19th centuries, integrating figure painting, portraiture, landscape, and still life into his scenes. Bartlett also references the religious iconography and art history throughout his work.

While Bartlett’s work was at times unfashionable, he was undeterred in his vision. Bartlett is guided in his work by a quote by Robertson Davies, “Let your root feed your crown.” To Bartlett, this means to paint your life, to be true to your temperament in order to maintain truth and originality throughout one’s work. Bartlett’s multilayered works are both deeply personal and responding to issues of the day. For all of the troubling issues of the day from politics to climate change, Bartlett remains hopeful for the country and the world. Bartlett firmly believes that art brings people together, both in empowering artists and in bridging gaps between viewers with different worldviews.

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