Louis Bunce, (American, 1907-1983), Beach No. 25, 1941, gouache on paper, 10.5” x 8”, private collection.
This is one of many small paintings on paper that Louis Bunce created while he and his wife Eda were living in New York during 1940-1942. Beach No. 25 is from a series of gouache beachscapes inspired by the work of European Surrealist painters such as André Masson and Max Ernst who took refuge in New York during World War II.
Louis Bunce, (American, 1907-1983), Summer Windows No. 2, 1946, serigraph, 7” x 11”, Portland Art Museum, Oregon, Helen Thurston Ayer Fund, 47.8.
Living in New York in the early 1940s, Louis Bunce and other artists worked to transform the medium of silkscreen, associated with commercial art and advertising, into a recognized fine art of limited-edition printmaking. They adopted the name “serigraphy” in order to distinguish their approach. By the mid-40s, Bunce was recognized nationally for his magnificent serigraphs such as Summer Windows No. 2 and Cove No. 2, both made in Portland where in 1947 he introduced serigraphy in the Pacific Northwest by teaching courses in it at the Museum Art School (now Pacific Northwest College of Art).
Louis Bunce (American, 1907-1983), Cove No. 2, April 5, 1947, serigraph, 9 ¼” x 13 ¾”, collection of Gary Westford, promised gift to the Hallie Ford Museum of Art.
Living in New York in the early 1940s, Louis Bunce and other artists worked to transform the medium of silkscreen, associated with commercial art and advertising, into a recognized fine art of limited-edition printmaking. They adopted the name “serigraphy” in order to distinguish their approach. By the mid-40s, Bunce was recognized nationally for his magnificent serigraphs such as Summer Windows No. 2 and Cove No. 2, both made in Portland where in 1947 he introduced serigraphy in the Pacific Northwest by teaching courses in it at the Museum Art School (now Pacific Northwest College of Art).
Louis Bunce, (American, 1907-1983), Untitled, from Solos, Ten Lithographs by Louis Bunce, 1961, lithograph, 15” x 18”, Portland Art Museum, Oregon, gift of F. Harrison Taylor, 86.23.3.
Funded by a Ford Foundation grant, Louis Bunce was in residence during the spring of 1961 at the recently established Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles. Famous for his serigraphs, he now participated in the Tamarind project of revitalizing the art of lithography, a medium he had not previously explored. Working with the master printers, Bunce created a portfolio of lithographs entitled Solos. The example seen here, created from April 13 to 17, is from the portfolio. It suggests the spontaneity and flexibility that lithography introduced to Bunce’s printmaking.
Louis Bunce, (American, 1907-1983), Machine, 1970, mixed media on paper, 28” x 21 ¼”, collection of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Willamette University, Salem, Oregon, the Bill Rhoades Collection, a Gift in Memory of Murna and Vay Rhoades, L2014.019.
In 1970, Louis Bunce startled his art public by creating a series of works that radically differed from his earlier production. In precise, linear style he rendered images of cabinets, tables, consoles, and apparati. Machine recalls the instructional drawings that he made as guides for ship assembly when he worked for the Portland shipyards during World War II. At the same time, Machine depicts a fanciful, improbable mechanism in the tradition of Dada and Surrealism.