Preliminaries to the Big Bout 

George Bellows made this dramatic lithograph, "Preliminaries to the Big Bout," during the early 20th century. The image pulsates with raw energy, capturing the gritty atmosphere of a boxing match. Bellows, part of the Ashcan School, sought to portray the unvarnished realities of urban life. Here, he depicts not just the physical contest but the social theatre surrounding it. The composition divides the space between the brutal, almost balletic, struggle of the fighters in the ring and the audience, a mix of shadowed figures distinguished by class and gender. The stark contrast between light and dark accentuates the voyeuristic aspect of the scene. The women are shown in the audience: are they complicit or repulsed? Bellows captures a moment rife with tension, reflecting the complex intersections of spectacle, masculinity, and social stratification. The artist said he tried to "cut loose from the influence of politeness in pictures". This image invites us to confront uncomfortable truths about power, violence, and the ways in which we participate in, or are complicit, in the spectacle of others' struggles.