Tom Bostelle
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Tom Bostelle (1925-2005) was a painter and sculptor and a lifelong resident of Chester County, Pa. At the age of 16, he became acquainted with Horace Pippin (1888-1946), who gained fame in the 1930s for his paintings in a folk style. Bostelle’s portrait of Pippin, the only one done from life, is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.
Bostelle very briefly attended the Pensylvania Academy of Fine Arts but was primarily self-taught. After World War II, he began the first of his many "shadow" paintings, inspired by crowds of defeated Japanese soldiers in the aftermath of the war. In these paintings, distorted shadows crystallize his subjects' moods and suggest their emotions. His interest in the shadow image came from his study of Rembrandt's chiaroscuro technique. He credited Cezanne as a major influence in his early career, and also admired the work of artists as diverse as Giacometti, Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.
In 1947, he had his first one-man exhibition and rose to prominence alongside Andrew Wyeth. The two artists -- who lived only a couple of miles apart -- frequently exhibited in the same shows.
Bostelle was represented by various galleries in the 1950s and 1960s, including Franz Bader Gallery (Washington, D.C.) and Selected Artists Galleries, Inc, Faragil Gallery, Hewitt Gallery and Bianchini Galleries (New York City), but then decided to rely on his own studio and, later, local galleries. His work has been shown at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor; the Museum of Modern Art in Paris; Spoleto Music Festival in Italy, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; Corcoran Gallery Loan Library, Washington, D.C.; and the Baltimore Museum Loan Library in Baltimore, Md.
His works are in the permanent collections of the Delaware Art Museum in Wiilmington, Del., and West Chester University in West Chester, Pa., the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pa., as well as countless distinguished personal collections worldwide.
