Charles Bell

The Ultimate Gumball, Charles Bell

1981

Charles Bell was a Photorealist painter from Tulsa, Oklahoma, who was known for creating vibrant still lifes of everyday items such as pinball machines, marbles, gumball machines and vintage toys 10 times their actual size. Bell started having solo shows in New York in 1972. He also participated in group exhibitions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the National Air and Space Museum and the Miyagi Museum of Art, among others. While many other artists in the 1970s were experimenting with Minimalism and Conceptual Art, Bell was a member of a small group of artists who painted a reflection of iconography and capitalism in America. By using consumer objects, Bell shared similar interests with the Pop artists of the 1960s, but, like other Photorealists, he placed them in a sphere of criticism rather than praise. In his 1986 painting "The Judgement of Paris," Bell recreated the Greek myth using Barbie and Ken dolls and a G.I. Joe figure, as well as other toys. This work is close in size to Peter Paul Rubens’ "The Judgement of Paris," which is almost 13 feet long. Bell died in New York in 1995.