(Audio Commentary)

Jack Beal

American (Richmond, Va., 1931)

“Pond Lilies”

1982.002.008

In the late 1950s Jack Beal arrived in New York as an abstract expressionist freshly minted by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and found himself among a multitude of young artists with similar aspirations. As a child, he had developed a fine talent for drawing from life, so he made the bravely reactionary decision to be a realist painter. By 1965 when Beal had his first major gallery exhibition, a small coterie of artists, including Beal, Philip Pearlstein and Alfred Leslie, were becoming known as “New Realists.”   Beal served on the faculty at Skowhegan during the summer of 1970 and contributed “Pond Lilies” to this benefit portfolio.

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