Charles Bell (1935-1995). Gum Ball I, 1971. Oil on canvas. 60 x 48 inches (152.4 x 121.9 cm). Signed lower right: C. B...

Description

Charles Bell (1935-1995)
Gum Ball I, 1971
Oil on canvas
60 x 48 inches (152.4 x 121.9 cm)
Signed lower right: C. Bell

PROVENANCE:
Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York;
Private collection, New York.

EXHIBITED:
Louis K. Meisel Gallery, "Charles Bell," October-November, 1974.

Charles Bell's Gumball Machine paintings are some of his best-known and a celebrated series. Considered a central figure in the American Photorealism movement, Bell is best known for his large-scale still life, that capture ordinary objects-like gumball machines, pinball machines, toys, and vintage memorabilia-with extraordinary detail. Using a hyper-polished style that makes the familiar appear almost like something to worship with its grand color and visual detail.

In Gum Ball I, Bell captures two vintage gumball machines with astonishing precision-every chip of paint, dull metallic edge, and scuffed surface rendered with the same reverence as the gleaming glass domes that crown them. The hyperrealism of the piece is almost startling; the machines appear both tactile and idealized, their worn enamel and rusted screws transformed into objects of quiet beauty. Through his meticulous attention to surface texture and reflected light, Bell turns nostalgia itself into spectacle. The bright, glossy gumballs-suspended in perfect stillness-contrast sharply with the timeworn casings that hold them, suggesting a delicate balance between innocence and decay, memory and materiality. In Gum Ball I, Bell elevates the humble vending machine into a monument of Americana, immortalizing the ordinary through his patient, near-sacred act of observation.


More information about Bell, Charles Artist.



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