With great regret, Forum Gallery passes along the shocking news of the recent death of the great American artist Kent Bellows at his home in Omaha, Nebraska.
Kent Bellows was born on June 26, 1949 in Blair, Nebraska. After attending the University of Nebraska, he applied his extraordinary gift as an artist and draftsman to a career, first as an illustrator and then as a fine artist. He first exhibited his work locally, at the Market in Omaha in 1971. Supported by sales of his work and grants from the Warren Buffet Projects Foundation , the Mid-America Arts Alliance and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Kent Bellows continued to exhibit his exceptional, highly-detailed and perceptive figurative paintings and drawings, and was soon noticed by some of the most discerning American collectors. The Tatistcheff Gallery was the first New York gallery to exhibit Kent Bellows work and placed his work in many fine collections.
Kent Bellows joined Forum Gallery in 1994, and the succeeding years have seen his works exhibited in seven exhibitions at Forum in New York and Los Angeles and at The Arkansas Art Center in Little Rock, the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, New York. Kent Bellows works are now included in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), The Art Institute of Chicago, the Toledo Museum of Art, The Arkansas Art Center and the New Britain Museum of American Art (Connecticut).
Kent Bellows had an extraordinary gift for the communication of character and personality of his subjects. He approached his work with selfless dedication, consummate grace and good humor. A positive presence in the art world, he was generous to younger artists and to his friends and family members. His passion for his work, his nearly obsessive attention to detail, his storytelling and his improvisational jazz piano playing will be greatly missed. His family has asked that those interested contribute in Kent Bellows’ memory to the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, 724 South 12th Street, Omaha, NE 68102, www.bemiscenter.org.
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