1882 -1925 · Ashcan School, New York, boxing and American modernity

Fists, compact crowds, electric light and dazzling brushstrokes make George Bellows the most physical painter in modern New York.

George Wesley Bellows was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1882. An accomplished student and sportsman at Ohio State University, he gave up a possible professional career in baseball to settle in New York in 1904. He studied with Robert Henri, who encouraged his students to look directly at the streets, working-class neighborhoods and the tensions of contemporary life. Bellows quickly became the youngest major representative of the Ashcan School. His first views of Manhattan show construction sites, docks, dirty snow, street children and overcrowded buildings with a thick, fast touch. His first views of Manhattan show construction sites, docks, dirty snow, street children and overcrowded buildings with a thick, fast touch. His first views of Manhattan quickly became the Ashcan School's youngest major representative. His first views of Manhattan show construction sites, docks, dirty snow, street children and overcrowded buildings with a thick, fast touch. His first views of Manhattan show construction sites, docks, dirty snow, street children and overcrowded buildings with a thick, fast touch. His first views of Manhattan show construction sites, docks, dirty snow, street children and overcrowded buildings with a thick, fast touch. Underground boxing bodies intertwine under a brutal light while spectators form a wall of faces. Two members of this club push the clash between anatomy, mass and speed even further. Dempsey and Firpo, painted after the historic fight of 1923, transforms the champion's fall out of the ring into a spectacular diagonal; Bellows represents himself among the journalists at the edge of the stage. However, these works are only one side of his practice. However, he depicts himself among the journalists at the edge of the stage. However, these works are only one side of his practice. However, he also paints the Hudson, the cliffs of Maine, family portraits, war scenes and the social diversity of New York. He also paints the Hudson, the cliffs of Maine, family portraits, war scenes and the social diversity of New York. However, he experiments with systems of proportion, contrasting palettes and lithography, a medium that diffuses widely his political and social comments. Independent of academic juries, he defended freedom of exhibition while teaching and participating in the artistic debates of his time. Bellows died in 1925, at the age of forty-two, as a result of appendicitis. His brief career left an extraordinarily energetic image of urban America, where realism, scholarly composition and pictorial modernity remained inseparable. The "George Bellows" selection notably compares Two Members of this Club and The Fight at Sharkey. His reading favors figures.

Bellows doesn't just paint the blow: he paints the entire flickering space, from the boxer's body to the crowd pressed against the ring.