11/13/14
Stag at Sharkey’s
Stag at Sharkey’s was created in 1909 by George Bellows to express a tense boxing match. George Bellows was an avid boxing fan, and painted many boxing matches. Stag at Sharkey's is one of Below’s most famous paintings due to its fast strokes and its great depiction of an ordinary boxing match during George Below’s time period. George bellows was a semi-pro baseball player when he found his true passion was art. Stag at Sharkey’s is a great depiction of realist art because it manages to capture an ordinary moment and turn it into something special and unusual.
Stag at Sharkey’s is a painting that uses fast brush strokes to symbolize movement and is painted from a low point of view as if the artist is part of the crowd and is struggling to look at the match. Overall, the contrast in colors highlights the two boxers and accents their struggle. However, the unbalance shows tension between the boxers, the referee, and the audience. Lots of negative space between the boxers and the audience shows how they seem to be different from the rest of world while still struggling to keep fighting against one another. The light focuses on the two boxers and fades away to the smiling and cheering crowd behind them.
This piece is a great depiction of realist art and should be included in the art show because it captures what a person back then would have thought as an ordinary moment, and turns it into a marvelous still moment in time, still managing to show the great energy and power involved in the tense fight. The crowd seems to be very focused on the fight yet still disorganized and uneven, giving this piece a great depiction of a normal boxing match showing an unbalanced scene which helps this painting look more realistic. Bellows directs the viewer's attention to the boxing match using the two boxers and the referee as the most prominent objects of the painting, to express the suspenseful match against the two