The Sports Art Of Bart Forbes: An Artistic Lens In Which To View Sports
Written: Jun 24 '01 (Updated Jul 17 '01)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Wonderful paintings. Great sports history.
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: Forbes' collection of sports paintings would be a wonderful addition for any fan of sports, art, or both.
|
|
|
| scoobysnack00's Full Review: Sports Art of Bart Forbes Books |
Life is one continuous movie with no rewind, fast-forward, pause, or stop buttons to use in order to alter our movie of life. As we venture through our daily lives, we try to hold onto those special moments only to have them slip through our grasps. Our lives are filled with many scenes that make up our life movie, but it is those special scenes that are embedded in our hearts, minds, and souls forever. Visual art is a lens by which we are able to freeze a moment in time and keep it as a visual memento. Paintings, photographs, drawings, sketches, and sculptures are just some of the visual arts that are used as lenses in order to glimpse into these frozen moments of our lives. In the book, The Sports Art Of Bart Forbes, we are introduced to paintings of frozen sports moments and heroes created for the appreciation of this special bond between art and sports. In his book, Bart Forbes, displays his wonderful collection of golf, baseball, football, basketball, Olympics, and boxing oil paintings.
The author:
Bart Forbes has used his exceptional ability as an artist and an illustrator as well as his love of sports to create an unique portfolio of art. Forbes has been called upon by many of the top sporting agencies in order to create pieces for their events. He has done many posters and prints for the PGA and Senior PGA tournaments. He has also designed 20 commemeritive stamps for the U.S. Postal Service, including the 1988 Olympic Stamps, Lou Gehrig, and Jessie Owens stamps. Forbes? work has been displayed in countless magazines, including Sports Illustrated, Time, and People. He has also been contracted to paint official posters for the Boston Marathon, The Americas Cup, Indianapolis 500, and the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games.
The book:
This book is extraordinary! This book is filled with a 144 pages of Forbes? watercolor and oil sports paintings. His paintings cover six major sports categories, golf, baseball, football, basketball, Olympics, and boxing. Most of the paintings have a caption about the painting (who or what it is of and how Forbes chose to use the athlete or scene) which makes for an interesting read about sports history and Forbes? own sports interests. What initially drew me to this book was the cover, I am a sucker for eye candy. The cover is one of Forbes? paintings of Michael Jordan, one of the all time greatest athletes. It is a overhead painting of Jordan, dressed in his black Bulls jersey, going for one of his famous dunks. The contrast between the background of the hard wood court and the foreground of Jordan and the rim make for an excellent display of Forbes? work.
Baseball:
In the baseball chapter Forbes? displays 13 of his baseball paintings. As I flip through this chapter I am presented with a history lesson of baseball as Forbes chose to paint some of baseballs all time greats. His work, ?Yankee Fantasy?, is an oil painting on canvas of four of the all time greatest baseball players, Ruth, Mantel, Gehrig, and DiMaggio. Each player is kneeling on one knee bracing themselves on a Louisville Slugger with the silhouette of Yankee?s Stadium in the background. This is a great painting of baseball history, these four heroes are displayed with eloquence and charm. Forbes? painting, ?The Rookie?, is a tribute to one of the all time greatest Dodgers, Jackie Robinson. The painting is a close up of the Dodgers arranged for their team photo. Robinson is centered in the middle of the painting with one player on either side of him and three players bellow him. Robinson?s dark skin brightens the painting and his facial expression gives life to painting. The five other Dodgers that surround him have their faces muted out. All you can see is the outline for a nose, ears, and partially a mouth, but there are no faces to go with the bodies. This is Forbes? way of having Robinson stand out from the other players. Along with these two paintings Forbes has also included paintings of Lefty Grove, Reggie Jackson, and scenery paintings from different ballparks.
Olympics:
In the Olympics chapter Forbes displays 21 Olympic paintings of both the summer and winter Olympics. He covers many of the different Olympic sports, track and field, swimming, boxing, Tae Kwon Do, women?s field hockey, ice-skating, and skiing. Forbes? painting, ?Fighter?, is a portrait of a boxer fit and ready for action. Once again Forbes uses the contrast between the light background and the dark character to make an eye-catching piece. The red headgear, trunks, and gloves along with the athlete?s dark skin make for a very colorful painting. Forbes? painting, ?Winning Form?, is a wonderful piece of a ski jumper in mid air flight form. The light background of the snow makes for a wonderful backdrop to place this athlete, whose ski jump form adds a wonderful depth to the painting.
Basketball:
In the basketball chapter, Forbes displays 9 of his basketball paintings. All but one of Forbes? paintings is either of college basketball or the 1996 U.S. Olympic basketball team, the other painting is a small portrait of Magic Johnson. One of Forbes? paintings is, ?National Champions?, which displays a scene from the North Carolina/Michigan championship game. The painting is of George Lynch of North Carolina going for a jump shot with Chris Webber of Michigan going for the block. Dean Smith eagerly looks on in the background, rooting his team on from the sidelines. The dark background of the stands only highlights the colorful jerseys of the North Carolina and Michigan players. Forbes? other college basketball painting, The Shot Heard Round The World, is of the 1992 Duke/Kentucky National Championship game, this is a four part painting. With 2.1 seconds left in the game Grant Hill throws a full court in-bounds pass to Christian Laettner, with a quick turn around jumper Laettner sinks the winning basket for the Blue Devils. The first painting is of Hill getting ready to make his full court pass, the next painting is of Laettner jumping above the defense catching Hill?s pass, the third painting is of Laettner setting up himself for his jumper, and the fourth and final painting is of Laettner?s jumper heading for the basket. This four-part painting is a great representation of one of the all time greatest college basketball games.
Football:
In the football chapter Forbes displays 14 of his football paintings. These paintings include the likes of Johnny Unitas, Walter Payton, Roger Staubach, Eric Dickerson, and other paintings of nameless athletes. Forbes? painting, ?Eric Dickerson?, is a great portrait of Dickerson in his blue SMU jersey. Forbes also includes Dickerson?s famous goggle looking glasses and neck-role in the painting. The eyes of Dickerson look like that of a lion looking to go after his prey.
Golf:
The golf chapter is Forbes? largest chapter in which he displays the most of his paintings, 26 in all. Forbes covers some of the greatest golfers and courses in his paintings. The golfers he has painted include Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan, Greg Norman (?The Shark?), Byron Nelson, Bobby Jones, Nancy Lopez, and Chi Chi Rodriguez. The courses he has painted include Pebble Beach, Carnegie in Dornoch, Scotland, and Augusta. Of all his golf paintings the two that stand out the most are of Pebble Beach, ?The Eighth Fairway? and ?The Legendary 7th?. In these two paintings Forbes is able to recreate the beautiful scenery of the Monterey coast as well as the beautiful golf course. These paintings illustrate just how beautiful the golf course is and how hard it is to play.
Boxing:
In the this chapter Forbes displays 9 of his boxing paintings. His boxing paintings cover five different scenes, Ali vs. Holmes, Hearns vs. Hagler, Ali (Cassius Clay at that time) in the 1960 Olympics, and a painting of Sugar Ray Leonard. Each of his boxing paintings are wonderfully colored and once again Forbes displays his excellent concept of light dark contrast.
Stamps:
This chapter displays the stamps Forbes did for the U.S. Postal Service. His collection includes, Lou Gehrig, Jesse Owens (Olympic track and field 1936), Helene Madison (Olympic swimming 1932), Eddie Eagan (Olympic boxing 1920), Hazel Wightman (Olympic tennis 1924), Ray Ewry (Olympic track and field 1900, 1904, and 1908), 1988 Winter Olympics (generic skier), 1992 Olympics (generic gymnast and generic skier, both Olympics were held on the same year).
ETC:
This chapter displays some of Forbes? other works that didn?t fit into the other categories. In this chapter Forbes displays his paintings of America?s Cup racing, tennis, hunting, fishing, hockey, Boston Marathon, and horse racing.
The Sports Art Of Bart Forbes is a great book for the fan of sports, art, or both. Forbes? paintings are created with heart, care, and appreciation. These paintings are sports memories frozen in time, which allow the reader to reminisce about the great times in sports history. This book can evoke the strong emotions that sports have on a society. When reading this book I was reminded of how deep sports in rooted in my life. Each painting carried me to a special place in my mind that was filled deep with sports memories. Whether you?re a fan of sports, art, or both this book is a definite buy.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
scoobysnack00
|
|
Member: Bryan
Location: Vacaville, CA
Reviews written: 39
Trusted by: 82 members
About Me:
"I shall try to look like a small black cloud. That will deceive them." Winnie-the-Pooh
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.