Charles Ragland Bunnell (1897–1968), was an American

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proce ...

, and

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

ist. Bunnell was born in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

in 1897. He moved to

Colorado Springs Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

in 1915. Bunnell enlisted and served in the United States Army during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He studied at the Broadmoor Art Academy, (now the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center). In 1934 Bunnell won a commission from the

Public Works of Art Project The Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) was a New Deal program designed to employ artists that operated from 1933 to 1934. The program was headed by Edward Bruce, under the United States Treasury Department with funding from the Civil Works Admin ...

(PWAP) to complete a mural for West Junior High School in Colorado Springs. He worked with

Frank Mechau Frank Albert Mechau (may-show) Jr. (January 1904–1946), was an American artist and muralist. Mechau's aspiration to become an artist began early in his life and developed rapidly. His determination led to a distinguished career that inc ...

on the mural for the Colorado Springs Post Office and went on to create paintings for the

Federal Art Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administrati ...

of the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

. Bunnell moved away from American Scene painting and into abstract art. 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 The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...

's New Deal and the Arts project. His work is in the collections of the

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art museum in Kansas City, Missouri, known for its encyclopedic collection of art from nearly every continent and culture, and especially for its extensive collection of Asian art. In 2007, ''Time'' magaz ...

, the Taylor Museum in the

Fine Arts Center, and

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

's Kirkland Museum, He died in Colorado Springs in 1968.

References

1985) , ncludes 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) (, ) ncludes 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. 1897 births 1968 deaths Artists from Kansas City, Missouri 20th-century American painters American male painters Modern painters Abstract expressionist artists Modern printmakers American muralists Landscape artists Painters from Missouri Artists from Colorado Springs, Colorado Federal Art Project artists 20th-century American printmakers 20th-century American male artists {{US-painter-1890s-stub

See also

References

Further reading