The top art dealers that shaped the way we show and represent art and artists include:
- Paul Durand-Ruel
- Joseph Duveen
- Peggy Guggenheim
- Edith Halpert
- Julien Levy
- Pierre Matisse
- Paul Rosenberg
- Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler
And let’s not forget a guy in Amarillo TX in the 1950s-70s with the unlikely name of Dord Fitz.
Bunnell Became Fitz’s Favorite
Fitz thought, heck, Amarillo can be as important as New York City in the midst of Abstract Expressionism. He achieved his goal up to a point asking the greats of the art world at the time to come to teach and show…in Amarillo. Louise Nevelson exhibited at his Amarillo Gallery, in person, with James Brooks, one of the founders of Abstractions in NYC. Leon Polk Smith, a follower of Mondrian, and Elaine de Kooning, also showed in Amarillo.
But Fitz the dealer particularly liked to show and sell the artist Charles Ragland Bunnell (1897-1968). LS found a painting by this artist in a Santa Barbara thrift store. What we know at the onset is that Bunnell hung out with the best, but he didn’t really like to go too far away from the West. Maybe he liked the Midwest, but he certainly didn’t get to NYC MUCH.
When an artist in the 1920s and 30s painted in a region, he needed to paint to sell in a regionalist style, or he needed to move to New York. Bunnell didn’t MOVE. He adopted a facility in a NUMBER of styles, from landscape, to portraiture, to mural work in the style of American Scene painting. Then in later life, he painted abstractions. That’s what LS found, an abstract painting in various rectangles in red.
Wounded in WWI, Bunnell returned with a new idea…to paint. He studied at Broadmoor with Birger Sandzen and later with Ernest Lawson, one of the New York Eight. Because his teachers admired Bunnell, they recommended him for the panel helping with the NY Armory Show in 1913. This show of greats of Russian Abstraction as well as French Abstract artists enlightened the American audience to the NEW in art. Imagine the impression that made on a boy from 19Teens Colorado. He must have felt so pleased, and the paintings he saw made a MARK.
Bunnell Moves to Abstraction
To make a living in Colorado, Bunnell painted in the realist style, then he partook in the WPA Mural projects. He did a Colorado mural, then, boom, he turned away from that style. He landed on complete abstraction, focusing on 83 paintings, lithographs, and studies in the Black and Blue series he did 1936-1940s.
Savvy, the Colorado Springs Art Center in 1956 held a show of his works. Bunnell wrote for the catalogue that “each viewer sees what he feels in my work.” I love that.
His trusty dealer in Amarillo who BELIEVED in him published a monograph on the work of Bunnell’s lifetime called Bunnell (1970), dedicated to Bunnell’s daughters. I find it interesting that a local, smalltime dealer made such an impact when he LOVED who and what he loves in art. Remember this preceded social media. Amarillo was not a place known for abstract art. So, I suppose we should put Dord as one of the great shapers of abstract art as a dealer. Of course, in a way, he CREATED a market in Amarillo.
Since the last show of his work, after Bunnell died, Amarillo Art Center did a show in 1987. Quite recently another show was mounted in Colorado Springs. So, you never know: a career artist with his OWN path might be important one day.
So, LS, the Bunnell abstract you found is wonderful, and he has today a dealer, David Cook Galleries, which owns a good number of Bunnell’s works for sale. Yours, fits in, as I said, abstraction, a later part of his oeuvre, and similar pieces are offered for sale at the size of yours (16 x 20” oil on board) for $4,800 and $5,500. Good for you LS!