2 thoughts on “George Bellows-Paper and Presentation, by Talia Kornreich”
George Bellows, a painter from the Ashcan school, frequently observed the chaos of New York City in his paintings. In your report, you mentioned some of his most famous pieces. I have definitely seen the painting “Cliff Dwellers” in the past. I have also seen scenes much like this in the photographs taken by my great-grandparents. As you mention, this painting reveals little details about the lives of immigrants. Children play in the streets with little to no supervision. People stand on every fire escape and at every window, trying to get fresh air not supplied by a tenement building’s poor ventilation. Clothes lines hang across the street; there is no room inside of the tenements to dry clothing. His painting shows the chaotic life of the lower-class, but for what it is. He does not take a stance or have an agenda behind his work as some other artist’s and photographers of the time did. His painting “Forty-two Kids” was also a great addition to your report. His quip after being denied an award definitely reflects the blind eye many turned to poverty at the time.
Talia effectively establishes the historical contexts in which George Bellows produced his work. Bellows, born in 1882, witnessed the effects of rapid urbanization and immigration in urban areas. Having familiarity with the aforementioned issues from writing a paper on photographer Jacob Riis, who was influenced by the very similar sociocultural conditions of The Gilded Age, I enjoyed reading about Bellows and examining his art. I thought that Bellow’s “Forty-two Kids” was similar to Riis’ “Street Arabs.” Both works depict poor immigrant children in urban areas. I liked that Talia related Bellows’ depiction of tenement living to a resembling scene in Stephen Crane’s “Maggie a Girl of the Streets.” Talia related the work of George Bellows to our course theme of immigration quite effectively. By discussing the urban transformations that arose from immigration, Talia gives the reader insight to notions that depicted Bellows’ daily sightings during the urbanization of New York City.
George Bellows, a painter from the Ashcan school, frequently observed the chaos of New York City in his paintings. In your report, you mentioned some of his most famous pieces. I have definitely seen the painting “Cliff Dwellers” in the past. I have also seen scenes much like this in the photographs taken by my great-grandparents. As you mention, this painting reveals little details about the lives of immigrants. Children play in the streets with little to no supervision. People stand on every fire escape and at every window, trying to get fresh air not supplied by a tenement building’s poor ventilation. Clothes lines hang across the street; there is no room inside of the tenements to dry clothing. His painting shows the chaotic life of the lower-class, but for what it is. He does not take a stance or have an agenda behind his work as some other artist’s and photographers of the time did. His painting “Forty-two Kids” was also a great addition to your report. His quip after being denied an award definitely reflects the blind eye many turned to poverty at the time.
Talia effectively establishes the historical contexts in which George Bellows produced his work. Bellows, born in 1882, witnessed the effects of rapid urbanization and immigration in urban areas. Having familiarity with the aforementioned issues from writing a paper on photographer Jacob Riis, who was influenced by the very similar sociocultural conditions of The Gilded Age, I enjoyed reading about Bellows and examining his art. I thought that Bellow’s “Forty-two Kids” was similar to Riis’ “Street Arabs.” Both works depict poor immigrant children in urban areas. I liked that Talia related Bellows’ depiction of tenement living to a resembling scene in Stephen Crane’s “Maggie a Girl of the Streets.” Talia related the work of George Bellows to our course theme of immigration quite effectively. By discussing the urban transformations that arose from immigration, Talia gives the reader insight to notions that depicted Bellows’ daily sightings during the urbanization of New York City.