Bo Bartlett: dreamlike realism

Bo Bartlett (b. 1955, Columbus, Georgia) received his Certificate of Fine Arts in 1981 from Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. “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.

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

He has had numerous solo exhibitions nationally and internationally. Recent solo exhibitions include “Bo Bartlett: American Artist,” The Mennello Museum of American Art, Orlando, FL; Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA; The University of Mississippi Museum, Oxford, MS; “Love and Other Sacraments,” Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland, ME; “Paintings of Home,” Ilges Gallery, Columbus State University, Columbus, GA; “A Survey of Paintings,” W.C. Bradley Co. Museum, Columbus, GA; “Paintings of Home,” P.P.O.W. Gallery, New York, NY; and “Bo Bartlett,” Ogden Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA.

Images courtesy of Bo Bartlett

Discover: www.bobartlett.com