Chicago, 1939

The artist (born Chicago 1939) lives and works in Taos, New Mexico. From 1945-1973 his primary residence was in Los Angeles. Bell was a student of Robert Irwin's at the Chouinard Art School in California from 1957-1959, and in the 1960s, as a young artist, he participated in several important museum group shows including The Museum of Modern Art's The Responsive Eye (1965); Primary Structures (1966) at the Jewish Museum in New York; The Whitney Museum of American Art's Annual Exhibition (1967); and 14 Sculptors: The Industrial Edge (1969) at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis among others.

Over the years Bell's performances, paintings, objects, environmental spaces, photographs, drawings, works on fabric, and furniture have been the subject of solo exhibitions worldwide.

His work is in many public collections including the Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo; Art Institute of Chicago; Denver Art Museum; Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York; Los Angeles County Museum; MIT, Cambridge; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of New Mexico; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Tate Gallery, London; Wadsworth Atheneum, CT; Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis; and te Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.