Artist Talk with Bo Bartlett
Meet the artist behind some of contemporary American realism's most striking images.
Bo Bartlett, PAFA Certificate alum (1980) and featured artist in A Nation of Artists, joins us for an intimate conversation about his life's work--monumental paintings that capture American life with photographic precision and profound emotional depth.
Bartlett's canvases are populated by figures caught in moments of contemplation, transition, and everyday transcendence. Influenced by his close friendship with Andrew Wyeth and his rigorous training at PAFA, Bartlett has spent five decades refining a distinctive vision of contemporary American experience. His works appear in major museum collections nationwide, and his recent paintings continue to explore themes of memory, place, and the search for meaning in an ever-changing America.
In this lunchtime talk, Bartlett discusses his artistic journey from PAFA student to celebrated painter, his working methods and technical approach to large-scale realism, and what it means to be an American artist working in a representational tradition in the 21st century. Hear firsthand how PAFA's legacy of teaching excellence—the unbroken line from Eakins to today's studios—shaped his career and continues to influence his work.
Bo Bartlett's Work
Bo Bartlett, The Samaritans, 2014. Oil on linen, 88 x 120 inches (223.5 x 304.8 cm).
The Samaritans
Bo Bartlett, Car Crash, 2005. Oil on Linen
Car Crash
Bo Bartlett, The Art of Healing, 2000. Oil on Linen, 52 x 72.
The Art of Healing
About Bo Bartlett
"Bartlett was educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where realist principles must be grasped before modernist ventures are encouraged. 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 or his island summer home in Maine, they represent a deeper, mythical concept of the archetypal, universal home."
A Nation of Artists
How does memory shape progress? Join us to celebrate Juneteenth at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for a powerful program for A Nation of Artists with Dr. Willa Cofield, an educator, author, and filmmaker. Through her story, explore how art and activism intersect to protect the voices of freedom and progress.
This special event features a screening of the documentary "The Nine O'Clock Whistle" and a special conversation with Dr. Cofield about her life as an American artist.
Following the screening, we will host a post-film discussion with Dr. Cofield followed by a book signing and social reception with the audience. We are excited to partner with Uncle Bobbie's Coffee and Books, who will be providing copies of Dr. Cofield's book The Nine O'Clock Whistle!
Juneteenth is a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.
On June 19, 1865, 2,000
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