(Jun 15, 2015 - Minneapolis, MN) A new exhibition of original paintings by premier sporting artist Stanley Meltzoff (1917-2006) has opened at the James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History on the University of Minnesota campus.  Titled THE GREAT SPORTING FISH, the show will run until August 30th.   Meltzoff is universally recognized as the world’s finest painter of saltwater game fish, and interest in his art has exploded since his death nine years ago at age 89.
 
The Bell Museum display includes more than 25 Meltzoff works, including studies and sketches, finished works, and related material.  Over a career that spanned some seven decades, the artist created more than 300 paintings of apex game fish, including bluefish, bonefish, permit, snook, striped bass, tarpon, and virtually all the world’s billfish and tuna.  He eschewed fresh water species, finding them too accessible, and instead dove all the world’s seas in order to glimpse his subjects in their natural environments.
 
Stanley Meltzoff was born in New York in 1917 and received a classical education in the arts from CCNY and The Pratt Institute.  He served as a correspondent for The Stars and Stripes army newspaper during WWII and upon returning home turned full time to art.  For many years, Meltzoff was a commercial artist and illustrator, producing interior and cover art for the likes of Life, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, and The Saturday Evening Post.  His 64 cover illustrations for Scientific American remain a record to this day.  In 1970, he received a commission from Sports Illustrated to paint a scene of striped bass in their natural habitat.  The series was published to rave reviews and Meltzoff’s career as a fish painter was underway.  Today his work can be found in the world’s leading museums and private collections, and his death in 2006 stilled a brush that will never be equaled.
 
The James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History was established by state fiat in 1872 and remains one of the most influential institutions of its kind.  Its collection boasts more than four million specimens, all housed in a lovely old building on the U of M’s Minneapolis campus.  The Bell Museum is open daily and admission is free with membership.  For more information, please contact the individual named above.

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