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George Wesley Bellows, an American realist painter, created the original painting Both Members of This Club, previously titled A Nigger and a White Man. The painting depicts an interracial boxing match between William Brown, an African American, and William Ford, a white man, in 1910. Bellows was inspired by this match and began working on the painting while promoters were trying to lure the white heavyweight champion Jim Jeffries out of retirement to defeat the aging African American fighter, Jack Johnson. Bellows' work often depicted urban life in New York City boldly and realistically.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Artist | George Wesley Bellows |
| Birth Date | August 12 or August 19, 1882 |
| Death Date | January 8, 1925 |
| Birthplace | Columbus, Ohio |
| Occupation | Painter |
| Genre | Realist |
| Movement | Ashcan School |
| Mentors | Robert Henri |
| Notable Works | Both Members of This Club, Three Children |
| Institutions with Artist's Works | National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., The White House, The Columbus Museum of Art |
| Artist | Ushio Shinohara |
| Birth Date | January 17, 1932 |
| Birthplace | Kōjimachi neighborhood of central Tokyo |
| Occupation | Painter, sculptor, performance artist |
| Genre | Contemporary |
| Notable Works | Boxing Painting series |
| Institutions with Artist's Works | Guggenheim Museum SoHo, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, National Museum of Art, Osaka |
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What You'll Learn
George Bellows, the artist
George Wesley Bellows was an American realist painter born on August 12 or 19, 1882, in Columbus, Ohio. He was the only child of a successful building contractor, George Bellows, and Anna Wilhelmina Smith Bellows. Bellows showed an early talent for art, drawing well before starting school and decorating his classroom blackboards at Thanksgiving and Christmas. After dropping out of Ohio State University in 1904, he moved to New York and studied under Robert Henri at the New York School of Art.
Bellows became associated with Henri's "The Eight" and the Ashcan School, a group of artists who advocated for depicting contemporary American society in all its forms. He first gained widespread recognition in 1908 when he and other pupils of Henri organised an exhibition of mostly urban studies. While some critics considered these paintings crude, others found them audacious and a step beyond the work of his teacher. Bellows' own work focused on the urban landscape of New York and its inhabitants, including street urchins, athletes, and city dwellers. He is particularly known for his bold depictions of prizefighters in the ring, painted with broad brushstrokes that evoke the grittiness of underground prizefighting clubs.
Bellows also taught at the Art Students League of New York in 1909 and contributed illustrations to the socialist publication The Masses from 1911 to 1917. He was a founding member of the Society of Independent Artists and a charter member of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors. In 1913, he helped organise the Armory Show, which exhibited five of his paintings and several of his drawings. He was elected a full member of the National Academy of Design that same year and taught at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1919.
Bellows died of appendicitis in New York on January 8, 1925, at the age of 42. Despite his tragically foreshortened career, he became the most acclaimed American artist of his generation, with his paintings and prints featured in many major American art museums, including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the Columbus Museum of Art in his hometown.
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Bellows' early life and career
George Wesley Bellows, born on August 12 or 19, 1882, in Columbus, Ohio, was an American realist painter known for his bold and gritty depictions of urban life in New York City. He was the only child of George Bellows and Anna Wilhelmina Smith Bellows and showed an early talent for art, often drawing and decorating classroom blackboards during his elementary school years. At the age of 10, Bellows took an interest in athletics and excelled in baseball and basketball. He played for the baseball and basketball teams at Ohio State University while also providing illustrations for the student yearbook, showcasing his artistic skills.
Despite his athletic talents, Bellows aspired to pursue a career in art. In 1904, he left college before graduating and moved to New York City to study at the New York School of Art. There, he was influenced by his teacher, Robert Henri, who encouraged his students to move beyond conservative scenes and seek out contemporary subjects that challenged prevailing standards of taste. Bellows took this to heart and focused on depicting the city's impoverished immigrant population, especially the children living in slums.
Bellows' early works quickly gained recognition for their originality, thematic range, and varied techniques. He became known for his powerful and dynamic depictions of boxing matches, which became his signature contribution to art history. These paintings were characterised by dark atmospheres and vivid, roughly laid brushstrokes that conveyed a strong sense of motion and direction. Bellows' growing prestige brought new opportunities, including portrait commissions and social invitations from New York's wealthy elite.
In addition to his boxing scenes and portraits, Bellows also painted cityscapes, seascapes, war scenes, and illustrations that addressed social, political, and cultural issues of his time. He associated with a group of radical artists and activists called "the Lyrical Left", advocating for extreme individual rights. Bellows married Emma Story Bellows in 1910, and she became his lifelong artistic muse, appearing in many of his paintings.
Bellows' career was tragically cut short when he died on January 8, 1925, at the age of forty-two, from a ruptured appendix. Despite his untimely death, he is still regarded as one of America's greatest artists, with his works featured in major museums across the country. His paintings continue to be celebrated for their dynamic and challenging perspectives on the early twentieth century.
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The painting's original name
George Wesley Bellows was an American realist painter known for his bold depictions of urban life in New York City. He is considered "the most acclaimed American artist of his generation" by the Columbus Museum of Art. Bellows created a painting of an interracial boxing match held at Sharkey's in August 1910, which he first called “A Nigger and a White Man”. He soon changed the title to the more complex and allusive "Both Members of This Club". The painting was included in the Exhibition of Independent Artists in New York, organised by Bellows' mentor Robert Henri.
Ushio Shinohara is a Japanese contemporary painter, sculptor, and performance artist based in New York City. He is best known for his "Boxing Painting" series, which he creates by punching a large piece of paper with boxing gloves that have been dipped in ink. Shinohara's work was shaped by the clashing forces of rapid political change, social upheaval, and increasing Americanisation and modernisation in post-occupation Japan. In 1991, he was invited to create a Boxing Painting in front of the public as part of the exhibition "Japanese Anti-Art: Now and Then" at the National Museum of Art in Osaka.
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The painting's subject matter
George Wesley Bellows was an American realist painter known for his bold depictions of urban life in New York City. He is buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. According to the Columbus Museum of Art, he became "the most acclaimed American artist of his generation".
Bellows created a painting called "Both Members of This Club", which depicts an interracial boxing match between an African American fighter, William Brown, and a white fighter, William Ford, that took place at Sharkey's in August 1910. The painting shows the two boxers in the ring, with the black ropes passing in front of and behind them, and the space around the ring in the top half of the painting is nearly black. The crowd, made up of light-skinned men and boys, are crowded into the bottom third of the painting, with their mouths widened in toothy grins or left agape. Bellows first called the painting “A Nigger and a White Man,” but later changed it to the less racially charged title, "Both Members of This Club". The term “both members” refers to the requirement that the contestants be declared members of private athletic clubs, indicating that the boxing ring was one of the few places where people of different races could interact on equal terms during that era of institutionalized racism.
Ushio Shinohara is a Japanese contemporary painter, sculptor, and performance artist based in New York City. He is known for his "Boxing Painting" series, which involves him punching a large piece of paper with boxing gloves that have been dipped in ink. His work often explores the clashing forces of traditional and contemporary artistic canons, filtered through a pop sensibility.
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Other artists with boxing paintings: Ushio Shinohara
The Japanese artist Ushio Shinohara is known for his "boxing paintings". To create these paintings, Shinohara dips boxing gloves in sumi-e ink or paint and then punches at paper or canvas. Born in 1932 in Tokyo, Japan, Shinohara studied painting at the Tokyo Art University. His work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including the Guggenheim Museum SoHo, the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo and Kyoto, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Shinohara's "boxing paintings" have received widespread acclaim internationally. His work was the subject of a 2003 commercial for Pocari Sweat, which featured the artist in action, painting against a wall. His unique artistic process was also captured on film by renowned photographer William Klein, who published photos of Shinohara's performance in his 1964 collection, "Tokyo". Klein's photographs are some of the few records of Shinohara's performances, as the Neo-Dada group's use of unconventional materials and transient actions often defied archival practices.
Shinohara's work is aligned with that of Neo-Dada artists like Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, particularly in his use of ordinary and found materials. He was a founding member of the short-lived, avant-garde collective Neo-Dada Organizers and his work is shaped by the clashing forces of rapid political change, social upheaval, and increasing Americanization and modernization in post-occupation Japan.
Shinohara's diverse, multidisciplinary practice incorporates embodied gestures, appropriation, assemblage, iconographies of mass culture and traditional arts, and vivid tones. He is also known for his energetic confrontations with conventions of both traditional and contemporary artistic canons, filtered through a pop sensibility.
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Frequently asked questions
George Wesley Bellows created the original 'Boxing Children' painting.
George Bellows created the painting in 1919.
The original painting is displayed in the Green Room of the White House.
