Charles R. Bunnell Explained

Charles Ragland Bunnell (1897–1968), was an American painter, printmaker, and muralist.

Bunnell was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1897.^[1] He moved to Colorado Springs in 1915.^[2] Bunnell enlisted and served in the United States Army during World War I.^[3] He studied at the Broadmoor Art Academy, (now the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center). ^[2]

In 1934, Bunnell won a commission from the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) to complete a mural for West Junior High School in Colorado Springs. He worked with Frank Mechau on the mural for the Colorado Springs Post Office and went on to create paintings for the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration.^[3]

Bunnell moved away from American Scene painting and into abstract art.^[4] Marika Herskovic's American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s : an Illustrated Survey (New York School Press, 2003), provides an accounting of this period in Bunnell's stylistic evolution.

In 1964, Bunnell was interviewed for the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project.^[5] His work is in the collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Taylor Museum in the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, and Denver's Kirkland Museum,^{[6] [7]} He died in Colorado Springs in 1968.^[1]

See also

• Federal Art Project
• Bodley Gallery

Further reading

• Charles Bunnell; Amarillo Art Center.; Dord Fitz Gallery. Charles Bunnell (1897-1968) : the past remembered : a retrospective exhibition, September 12-October 18, 1987 (Amarillo, Texas : Amarillo Art Center, 1987), [includes color images of Bunnell's work]
• Doris Ostrander Dawdy. Artists of the American West : a biographical dictionary (Chicago : Sage Books, [1974]-1985), [includes color images of Bunnell's work]
• Marika Herskovic. American abstract expressionism of the 1950s : an illustrated survey : with artists' statements, artwork and biographies (New York : New York School Press, 2003) [includes color images of Bunnell's work]
• Stanley Cuba. John F. Carlson and Artists of the Broadmoor Academy, David Cook Fine Art, Denver, Colorado, 1999.
• Cori Sherman North. Charles Bunnell: Rocky Mountain Modern, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 2013.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Charles Bunnell - Biography . AskArt . 19 October 2022.
2. Web site: Charles Ragland Bunnell . ArtNet . 19 October 2022.
3. Web site: Charles Bunnell . Modernist West . 19 October 2022.
4. Web site: Stewart . Golddigger: Elizabeth . Charles Bunnell came to embrace abstract art . Santa Barbara News-Press . 19 October 2022 . 15 August 2022.
5. Web site: Oral history interview with Charles Bunnell, 1964 November 10 Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution . Archives of American Art . Smithsonian Institution . 19 October 2022 . en.
6. Web site: Untitled by Charles Bunnell - oil painting . Kirkland Museum . 19 October 2022.
7. Web site: FAC Legacy Series . Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center . 19 October 2022.