Bart Forbes (born July 3, 1939 in

Altus, Oklahoma Altus () is a city in and the county seat of Jackson County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 18,729 at the 2020 census. Altus is home to Altus Air Force Base, the United States Air Force training base for C-17, KC-46 and KC-135 ...

) is an American

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

and

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...

. He has worked for most of the popular magazines, amongst them ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'', ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

'', ''

Ladies' Home Journal ''Ladies' Home Journal'' was an American magazine that ran until 2016 and was last published by the Meredith Corporation. It was first published on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th centur ...

'', ''

McCall's ''McCall's'' was a monthly United States, American women's magazine, published by the McCall Corporation, that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of 8.4 million in the early 1960s. The publication ...

'' and ''

Golf Digest ''Golf Digest'' is a monthly golf magazine published by Warner Bros. Discovery through its TNT Sports unit. It is a generalist golf publication covering recreational golf and men's and women's competitive golf. The magazine started by John F. ...

'', as well as a broad selection of corporate clients. His works include

postage stamps A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the ...

for the

US Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal serv ...

, ''Time'' magazine's Man of the Year article on

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

, paintings of the

1988 Seoul Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were repres ...

, theme paintings for the PGA tournaments and club houses and paintings of the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. T ...

for

Jerry Jones Jerral Wayne Jones Sr. (born October 13, 1942) is an American billionaire businessman who is the owner, president, and General manager (American football), general manager of the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He bought t ...

' private jet. He was the recipient of the 1986 Sport Artist of the Year Award given annually by the American Sport Art Museum and Archives. ''The Sports Art of Bart Forbes'', a collection of his most famous sports paintings, was published by Beckett in 1998. He was inducted into the

Society of Illustrators The Society of Illustrators (SoI) is a professional society based in New York City. It was founded in 1901 to promote the art of illustration and, since 1959, has held an annual exhibition. Since absorbing the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (M ...

Hall of Fame in 2017. Bart and his wife, Mary Jo were married July 26, 1969. Their son, Ted Forbes, is the creator and host of the YouTube vlog, ''The Art of Photography''. Their daughter, Sarah Radicello, is a graphic designer.

Career

Bart Forbes is a painter–illustrator who has worked over a 55+ year period. He is well-known for his loose painterly, yet realistic style of work which, in the 1970s and 1980s, was regularly reproduced to accompany stories for ''McCall's'', ''

Redbook ''Redbook'' is an American women's magazine that is published by the Hearst Communications, Hearst magazine division. It is one of the "Seven Sisters (magazines), Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines. It ceased print publicatio ...

'', ''Ladies' Home Journal'' and other popular women's magazines. At that time, a number of limited edition prints were published including male and female golfers, the endangered species series and images of Native Americans among others.

Sports art

As Forbes' career progressed and women's magazines adopted a smaller size format, most often without short stories, his focus shifted to the world of sport with commissions from ''Sports Illustrated'', ''Time'' and the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

. In 1987, he was commissioned by the Korean Olympic Committee to be their official artist for the

. Several of the resultant images were reproduced in a series of limited editions prints as well.

Gallery work and fine art

Over the years, requests for large paintings necessitated that Forbes change medium from water color to oil, but his style retained its original loose, washy quality. In 2005, 2006 and 2007 TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, commissioned Forbes to do a number of mural-size paintings of legendary golf moments and players from the Players Championship tournaments. He is currently still painting commissioned work along with landscape paintings for sale in galleries.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forbes, Bart 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists Living people 1939 births 20th-century American male artists