Bo Bartlett

• Published to commemorate the opening of the new Bo Bartlett Center as part of Columbus State University College of the Arts in the artist’s hometown of Columbus, GA in 2016
• First mid-career retrospective of Bartlett’s work
• Bartlett’s work hangs in well-known public spaces including the McCormick Place in Chicago, the US Mint in Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Convention Center, as well as museum collections including the Seattle Art Museum, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Denver Museum of Art, the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia

Bo Bartlett is an American realist known for his complex multi-layered narrative paintings. Working in the tradition of realism that stretches from Thomas Eakins and Winslow Homer to Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth, Bartlett’s bold narrative approach has made him one of the leading painters of a generation of American artists that redefined realist painting for our time. Bartlett’s accessible style and subject matter examine his personal, often epic explorations of family, his roots in the American South, home, water and the sea, beauty, life and death.

Andrew Wyeth once wrote, ‘Bo Bartlett is very American. He is fresh, he’s gifted, and he’s what we need in this country. Bo is one of the very few I feel this strongly about.’

This long-awaited mid-career retrospective is published to help celebrate the opening of the new Bo Bartlett Center in his hometown of Columbus, Georgia. The exquisitely designed volume is the first full publication to document Bartlett’s evolution as an artist, his personal creative process and to place his work in the context of the long-standing tradition of American realism.

David Houston is the Executive Director of the Bo Bartlett Center, College of the Arts, Columbus State University. Previously he was the Director of Curatorial, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and Chief Curator, Ogden Museum of Southern Art.

Carter Ratcliff is an esteemed American art critic, writer and poet. He is the author of numerous books on art including John Singer Sargent, Robert Longo and Andy Warhol: Portraits. He has contributed to numerous magazines including Art in America and Parkett.