Skip to main content

Charles Ragland Bunnell Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

American, 1897-1968
Charles Bunnell developed a love for art at a very young age. As a child in Kansas City, Missouri, he spent much of his time drawing. When he was unable to find paper he drew on walls and in the margins of textbooks for which he was often fined. Around 1915, Bunnell moved with his family to Colorado Springs, Colorado. He served in World War I and later used his GI Training to study at the Broadmoor Art Academy (later renamed the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center) during 1922 and 1923. In 1922, he married fellow student, Laura Palmer. He studied with Ernest Lawson in 1927-1928 and, in the winter of 1928-1929, he served as Lawson’s assistant. In the late 1920’s, the Bunnell’s settled just west of Colorado Springs and 1928, they welcomed the first of their three children. Their one-acre homesite, which they referred to as “Old Home Place”, was situated between two sets of railroad tracks at the foot of Pike’s Peak. Charlie converted an old railroad boxcar into his studio, where he later gave lessons. Beginning in 1931, Bunnell spent a year and a half studying under Boardman Robinson. The two men clashed constantly due to a generation gap and markedly different philosophies. Robinson encouraged his students not to stray from realism and though Bunnell mastered Robinson’s preferred style of American Scene painting, he regularly irritated his professor with his abstract sketches. Bunnell taught at the Kansas City Art Institute during the summers of 1929, 1930, 1940, and 1941. Between 1934 and 1941, he painted and taught under federal projects which included assisting Frank Mechau on murals for the Colorado Springs Post Office. However, he did not take to mural making and, after criticism from Boardman Robinson about his use of “heavy daubs which have no place in mural work,” he abandoned mural-making altogether. By the late 1930’s, Bunnell’s work departed from the American Scene/Modernist style he was trained in towards abstraction. This is marked by his “Black and Blue” series, consisting of 83 abstracted ink and watercolors. Affected by the Second World War and the loss of his 10-year old son, Bunnell’s work of the early 1940’s took on a Transcendental and Surrealist tone. The works from this period are moody and readily reflect the political and personal turmoil experienced by the artist. In the late 1940’s, Bunnell began experimenting with Abstract Expressionism. He alone is credited with introducing Colorado Springs to the new style as it was excluded from the Fine Art Center’s curriculum by Boardman Robinson. Bunnell excelled in Abstract Expressionism and continued to evolve in the style through the 1950’s continuing to his death in 1968. He was recently recognized as a premier American Abstract Expressionist by his inclusion in the book American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950’s: An Illustrated Survey. © David Cook Galleries, LLC
(Biography provided by David Cook Galleries)
to
3
3
2
3
2
1
Overall Height
to
Overall Width
to
2
1
3
1
1
1
23
136
124
78
70
2
2
2
2
1
Artist: Charles Ragland Bunnell
1950s Abstract Expressionist Watercolor Composition by Charles Bunnell
By Charles Ragland Bunnell
Located in Denver, CO
Abstract expressionist watercolor painting of blue, black, orange, and green signed by Charles Ragland Bunnell (1897-1968). Presented in a custom frame with all archival materials an...
Category

1950s Abstract Expressionist Charles Ragland Bunnell Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Paper

1940s American Modernist Abstracted Industrial Watercolor Ink Charcoal Painting
By Charles Ragland Bunnell
Located in Denver, CO
Charles Bunnell original vintage 1941 signed painting from the artist's Black and Blue Series, Abstract Structure style. Watercolor, Ink and Charcoal on paper in colors of black, wh...
Category

1940s American Modern Charles Ragland Bunnell Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Charcoal, Ink, Watercolor

Georgetown (Church in the Mountains, Colorado), Modernist Landscape Ink Drawing
By Charles Ragland Bunnell
Located in Denver, CO
Georgetown, Colorado, vintage 1938 WPA era ink drawing/painting on paper of a church set in a rocky mountain landscape by Charles Bunnell (1897-1968). Black on a creamy white paper, signed and dated lower right, titled lower left. Presented in a custom frame with all archival materials, outer dimensions measure 16 ¼ x 14 ½ x 1¼ inches. Image size is 7 ¾ x 5 ¾ inches. Drawing is clean and in good vintage condition - please contact us for a detailed condition report. Provenance: Estate of Charles Ragland Bunnell Expedited and international shipping is available - please contact us for a quote. About the Artist: Charles Bunnell developed a love for art as a child in Kansas City, Missouri. Around 1915, Bunnell moved with his family to Colorado Springs, Colorado. He served in World War I and later used his GI Training to study at the Broadmoor Art Academy (later renamed the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center) during 1922 and 1923. In 1922, he married fellow student, Laura Palmer...
Category

1930s American Modern Charles Ragland Bunnell Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Archival Paper

Related Items
Thread
By Ed Touchette
Located in Gloucester, MA
Ed Touchette (b. 1948) is inspired by a love of architecture and public spaces to make paintings which express joyful wonder at our built environment — ol...
Category

2010s Bauhaus Charles Ragland Bunnell Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Acrylic, Watercolor

Rainstorm Sunset
By Robert Noel Blair
Located in Buffalo, NY
You are viewing a modernist American watercolor painting by Robert Noel Blair. Robert Noel Blair (American, 1912-2003) was an American artist, painter, sculptor, printmaker and te...
Category

American Modern Charles Ragland Bunnell Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

63 Years (Tree Rings Series)
By Steven L. Anderson
Located in New York, NY
Steven L. Anderson 63 Years, 2015 marker and pen on paper 16 x 16 inches The Tree Rings artworks are made on paper which is torn and reassembled, scratched,...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Charles Ragland Bunnell Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Archival Paper, Permanent Marker

36 Years (Tree Rings Series)
By Steven L. Anderson
Located in New York, NY
Steven L. Anderson 36 Years, 2015 marker and pen on paper 8 x 8 inches The Tree Rings artworks are made on paper which is torn and reassembled, scratched, a...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Charles Ragland Bunnell Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Archival Paper, Permanent Marker

46 Years (Tree Rings Series)
By Steven L. Anderson
Located in New York, NY
Steven L. Anderson 46 Years, 2015 marker and pen on paper 9.5 x 7.5 inches The Tree Rings artworks are made on paper which is torn and reassembled, scratche...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Charles Ragland Bunnell Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Archival Paper, Permanent Marker

162 Years (Tree Rings Series)
By Steven L. Anderson
Located in New York, NY
Steven L. Anderson 162 Years, 2015 marker and pen on paper 60 x 60 inches The Tree Rings artworks are made on paper which is torn and reassembled, scratched...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Charles Ragland Bunnell Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Archival Paper, Permanent Marker

Abstract Watercolor Painting, 'Design for Space', 2003 by David Ruth
By David Ruth
Located in Oakland, CA
This is a contemporary abstract watercolor painting by artist David Ruth. This series of paintings often feature bright colors and vibrant layouts that draw the viewer in. They are c...
Category

Early 2000s Abstract Expressionist Charles Ragland Bunnell Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Abstract "Tree Landscape" Ink Line Drawing 1981 American Modernist Jack Hooper
By Jack Hooper
Located in Arp, TX
Jack Hooper "Tree Landscape" 1981 Ink on glossy paper 11"x7" unframed Signed and dated in pencil lower right Embrace the serene beauty of nature through this abstract line drawing b...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Charles Ragland Bunnell Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink

Vision I by Cheryl R. Riley, purple, gray, gold abstract geometric symbols
By Cheryl R. Riley
Located in Jersey City, NJ
Vision I by Cheryl R. Riley Metallic abstract geometric symbols, purple, yellow, gray, gold Gouache and metallic ink on 140# cold press watercolor paper Feminist Art and Contemporar...
Category

2010s Abstract Geometric Charles Ragland Bunnell Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Gold Leaf

1950s "Sitting in Chair" Mid Century Figurative Pratt Graphic Arts Center
By Donald Stacy
Located in Arp, TX
Donald Stacy "Sitting in Chair" c.1950s Gouache and oil pastel on paper 24" x 18" unframed Came from artist's estate *Custom framing available for additio...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Charles Ragland Bunnell Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Oil Pastel, Gouache

Modernist Abstract Expressionist Watercolor Painting Bauhaus Weimar Pawel Kontny
By Pawel Kontny
Located in Surfside, FL
Abstract watercolor composition bearing the influence of the earlier color-block compositions of Paul Klee. Pawel August Kontny, (Polish-German-American artist) He was born in Laurahuette, Poland, in 1923, the son of a wealthy pastry shop owner. In 1939 he began studying architecture in Breslau where he was introduced to the European masters and to the work of some of the German Expressionists, soon afterward banned as "degenerate artists" and removed from museums throughout Germany by the Nazi regime. His studies were interrupted by World War II. Drafted into the German army, traveling in many countries as a soldier, he sketched various landscapes but in 1945, he was captured and held as a prisoner of war in Italy. After the war, he studied at the Union of Nuremberg Architects to help design buildings to replace ones destroyed in the war. He recorded his impressions of the local population and the landscapes through his watercolors and drawings. Pawel Kontny thereafter moved to Nuremberg, Germany, becoming a member of the Union of Nuremberg Architects and helping to rebuild the city's historic center. He soon decided to concentrate on his professional art career. He married Irmgard Laurer, a dancer with the Nuremberg Opera. Pavel Kontny 's career as an artist was launched with his participation in an all German exhibition, held at the Dusseldorf Museum in 1952. He held one-man shows in Germany, Switzerland and the United States. During his trip to the United States in 1960, Kontny became instantly enamored with Colorado, and decided to relocate to Cherry Hills with his wife and two children. He quickly established himself in the local art community, being affiliated for a time with Denver Art Galleries and Saks Galleries. His subject matter became the Southwest. During this time he received the Prestigious Gold Medal of the Art Academy of Rome. His extensive travel provided material for the paintings he did using his hallmark marble dust technique. he also worked equally in pastel, watercolor, charcoal and pencil-and-ink. in a style which merged abstraction and realist styles, influenced by Abstract Expressionist painting and South Western American landscapes. This one bears the influence of Sam Francis. In the early 1960s he was one of only a few European-born professional artists in the state, a select group that included Herbert Bayer (1900-1985), a member of the prewar Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau, Germany, and Roland Detre (1903-2001), a Hungarian modernist painter. As a Denver, Colorado resident, Pavel Kontny exhibited at galleries and museums throughout the United States, Germany and Japan. There, he was inspired by frequent trips to Native American pueblos in the Southwest, as well as by the study of the Plains Indians of Montana and Wyoming. Over the years Kontny had a number of students and generously helped young artist by hosting exhibitions at his Cherry Hills home. For many years he generously donated his paintings to support charitable causes in Denver. Influences during his European years included German pastelist C.O. Muller, German Informel painter Karl Dahmen and Swiss artist, Hans Erni. In the early 1950s his painting style showed the influence of the Die Brücke (The Bridge), a group of German expressionist artists formed in Dresden in 1905 who had a major impact on the evolution of modern art in the twentieth century in Germany. By the middle of the decade his style incorporated more referential abstraction and total abstraction, resulting in part from his study of Hans Hartung, a German artist based in Paris who exhibited his gestural abstract work in Germany. The American moon landing in 1969 inspired Paul Kontny...
Category

20th Century American Modern Charles Ragland Bunnell Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Archival Paper

Untitled Abstract Expressionist watercolor, pencil signed, Japanese-American art
By Taro Yamamoto
Located in New York, NY
Taro Yamamoto Untitled Abstract Expressionist watercolor, ca. 1957 Watercolor wash, drips & splatter on rice paper Pencil signed on the front 12 × 16 inches Unframed Mid century mod...
Category

Mid-20th Century Abstract Expressionist Charles Ragland Bunnell Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Rice Paper, Pencil

Previously Available Items
1940s Abstract Watercolor Mixed Media Painting by Charles Bunnell
By Charles Ragland Bunnell
Located in Denver, CO
Untitled (Crucifixion, Black & Blue Series) is an original watercolor, charcoal and ink on paper from the artist Charles Ragland Bunnell's (1897-1968) Black & Blue Series from 1941. Abstract composition created in shades of red, gray, white, and black. Presented in a vintage frame, outer dimensions measure 38 ⅝ x 30 ¾ inches. Image size is 29 x 22 inches. Expedited and International shipping is available - please contact us for a quote. About the Artist: Born 1897 Died 1968...
Category

1940s American Modern Charles Ragland Bunnell Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Charcoal, Archival Ink, Watercolor, Archival Paper

Untitled (Black and Blue Series) Vintage 1941 Abstracted Structure Painting
By Charles Ragland Bunnell
Located in Denver, CO
Charles Bunnell original vintage 1941 signed painting from the artist's Black and Blue Series, Abstract Structure style. Watercolor, Ink and Charcoal on paper in colors of black, wh...
Category

1940s American Modern Charles Ragland Bunnell Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Charcoal, Ink, Watercolor

Charles Ragland Bunnell abstract drawings and watercolors for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Charles Ragland Bunnell abstract drawings and watercolors available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Charles Ragland Bunnell in ink, paint, paper and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large Charles Ragland Bunnell abstract drawings and watercolors, so small editions measuring 14 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Sandra Phipps MacDiarmid, Perry Burns, and Thomas Hammer. Charles Ragland Bunnell abstract drawings and watercolors prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $1,250 and tops out at $6,750, while the average work can sell for $2,250.

Recently Viewed

View All