Bo Bartlett "Kingdom of Ends" Limited Edition Giclée Print (14 / 250)

Famed artist Bo Bartlett's allegorical work "Kingdom of Ends" is mysterious and perhaps unsettling to many. It is a Limited Edition giclée print (Print number 6 of 250) depicting an older man with a cane and a reluctant child staring at a metallic model of the globe.

Upon examination, we realize that the Globe is floating in mid-air, with no support. Odd tendrils of smoke are suggested on the horizon. What is the man thinking? And why is the vast expanse of the Globe so strangely focused for us on the most empty parts of our planet, the vast Pacific Basin? Could the persons in the work actually be the same person, a sort of "natural child" that accompanies a man contemplating his inevitable physical demise?

Many observers compare Bartlett's sensibilities to artists like Andrew Wyeth and see him as a successor to a unique American Realist style. His use of intense colors and masterful use of light evoke a nearly mystical feeling, reminiscent of Edward Hopper as well as American Luminist painters of the 19th Century .

Luminism is an American landscape painting style of the 1850s to 1870s, characterized by effects of light in landscape, through the use of aerial perspective and the concealment of visible brushstrokes. Luminist landscapes emphasize tranquility, and often depict calm, reflective water and a soft, hazy sky. All of these elements are present in this beautiful print.

According to Tom Butler, describing Bo Bartlett in his book , Bo Bartlett, Heartland:

"Bo Bartlett is an American realist with a modernist vision. His paintings are well within the tradition of American realism as defined by artists such as Thomas Eakins and Andrew Wyeth. Like these artists, Bartlett looks at America’s heart—its land and its people—and describes the beauty he finds in everyday life. His paintings celebrate the underlying epic nature of the commonplace and the personal significance of the extraordinary.

Bartlett was educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where realist principles must be grasped before modernist ventures are encouraged. He pushes the boundaries of the realist tradition with his multilayered imagery. Life, death, passage, memory, and confrontation coexist easily in his world. Family and friends are the cast of characters that appear in his dreamlike narrative works. Although the scenes are set around his childhood home in Georgia or his island summer home in Maine, they represent a deeper, mythical concept of the archetypal, universal home."

This special work measures approximately 44 x 44 inches and is framed in a classical Wooden frame with Museum backing and UV protective Lucite glass. It is quite large.

Bartlett is among America's most important realist artists and his works are found in galleries, private collections and museums around the world. This is a Limited Edition Giclée print, numbered 6 out of 250. It is a must have for those who enjoy art that provokes, and plays with our own imaginations, but refuses to tell us explicitly what its message may be.