Louis Bunce Paintings
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Artist: Louis Bunce
Monumental Abstract Modernist Oil Panel Oregon Centennial Exposition Mural 1959
By Louis Bunce
Located in Portland, OR
Monumental modernist oil on panel painting by Louis Demott Bunce (1907-1983), from an installation for the Oregon Centennial Exposition, 1959.
A rare & important and monumental abstract painting by the celebrated Oregon artist Louis Bunce, the artist was commissioned to paint a mural for the 1959 Oregon Centennial & Trade Fair in Portland, the installation was titled " Gay Garden Way ", it was painted for the exterior of the Horticultural building. The mural having abstract plant abstractions, according to Bunce in his own words it was "the rounded shapes of flowers and the sun", the mural created a major furor from the conservative art public.
The painting signed and dated by the artist lower left, the work was sold in the late 1980s through the celebrated Laura Russo Gallery, this painting is featured in Roger Hull's book; "Louis Bunce, Dialogue with Modernism".
The painting is in good condition and ready to grace your wall.
Louis Bunce attended high school and the Museum Art School before leaving for the Art Students League in New York. He established a New York connection that began when he first attended classes there in 1927 and continued over the years with frequent visits. He became friends with many promising artists, including Jackson Pollock and David Smith. In 1939 he worked for the WPA Easel Project in New York and by the time he returned to Portland he was an established artist on the East Coast. He worked at the WPA art center in Salem as an Instructor and Assistant Director. His work included murals, two of which are in the Post Offices in Grants Pass and St. Johns. Their subjects, mining and orchard farming, are activities of each region. "I have always been visually drawn to the landscape, at first the desert and mountain regions of Wyoming; then the lush and gentle color of the Pacific Northwest and the urban landscape of New York." From 1942-1945 he worked as an illustrator, a tool designer, and in assembly for the Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation. After WWII, Bunce joined the faculty of the Museum Art School in Portland, where he had been a student in 1925-1926. He taught there until his retirement in 1972. He excelled at producing screen-prints and introduced this technique to Oregon. While maintaining a national reputation throughout the 1950s and 1960s, some of New York's most prestigious galleries represented him. Theater buffs will remember his murals and portraits for Portland Civic Theater's 1938 production of Pride and Prejudice. In a career that made him one of the most recognized names in Oregon's art history, Bunce had many styles: cubism, expressionism, surrealism and abstractionism. His 1958 mural in the Portland International Airport presents this abstract style: "whirling propellers and shadows of the concourse as seen from above." It was controversial at the time as being too abstract for a public art project. Louis and wife Eda opened a full-time art gallery in Portland in 1949, called the Kharouba. Located first at 1016 SE Morrison, then at SW 11th and Alder, the gallery represented many of the leading artists of the day: Josephine Cameron, William Givler, Clifford Gleason, Jack Hammack, Charles Heaney, Frederick Heidel, George Johanson, Jack McLarty, Rick Norwood, C.S. Price, Arthur Runquist, Jolan Torok, Charles Voorhies...
Category
1950s Modern Louis Bunce Paintings
Materials
Oil
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An large abstract mixed media painting by Louis De Mot Bunce (1907-1983). The painting is signed and dated 1969 lower right, with the title "Tablet". Condition is very good indeed, a rare and compelling artwork by one of Oregon's most acclaimed artists.
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Louis Demott Bunce was born in Lander, Wyoming, and moved with his family to Portland in 1920. He studied at the Museum Art School in 1925-1926, befriending fellow student William Givler. Both enrolled at the Art Students League in New York, Bunce studying there during 1927-1931.
In Oregon, Bunce participated in the Public Works of Art Project in Portland in 1934, and in 1936 assisted John Ballator in painting murals for the St. Johns Post Office. These were funded by the U.S. Treasury Department, which also commissioned Bunce to paint the mural of Native American life for the Grants Pass Post Office. During the period 1937-1939, he was a teacher and then associate director for the WPA Federal Art Center in Salem, where he collaborated with his students, including Clifford Gleason, in painting murals for Bush Elementary School. He met and married Eda Hult in Salem.
In 1940, Bunce returned to New York and worked as a WPA muralist and easel painter until 1942. Living in New York for two extended periods and visiting almost annually for many years thereafter helped him establish links between the art communities in Portland and New York, where he knew Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Franz Kline, and other key figures in American modernism.
During World War II, Bunce worked as illustrator and tool designer for the Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation, and in 1946 William Givler, by then dean of the Museum Art School, hired him as a faculty member. In 1949, Bunce and his wife established the Kharouba Gallery, the first in Portland devoted to showcasing experimental avant-garde art by artists working in Portland and further afield. Bunce’s abstract mural for Portland International Airport created controversy in 1958, when the debate between “modern” and “traditional” artists was at its height in Oregon.
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Louis Bunce paintings for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Louis Bunce paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Louis Bunce in oil paint, paint and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 1950s and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large Louis Bunce paintings, so small editions measuring 50 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Robert McIntosh, Stanley Bate, and Clarence Holbrook Carter. Louis Bunce paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $15,995 and tops out at $15,995, while the average work can sell for $15,995.