Though he was the most famous and most highly regarded American artist of his era, George Bellows, the intense, prolific painter of the early twentieth century, has remained as much of an enigma to his successors as to his contemporaries. Best known for his gritty, impressionistic depictions of underground boxing and the lower east side of New York, Bellows was also influenced by cultural movements and theories of art as diverse as transcendentalism and surrealism.

In George Bellows: American Artist, Joyce Carol Oates explores his life and work from the perspective of a writer and admirer. Examining Bellows' art within his historical and cultural contexts, Oates sheds new light on his technical versatility and voracious imagination.