Biennial. The tall vertical forestscape, a jumble of angles
and lines, was abstracted from the Tillamook Burn, whose
devastation logger-turned-conservation writer Stewart
Holbrook had declared a fit subject for Oregon artists.
Art News critic Henry McBride wrote that Bunce’s
painting was one of just nine in the biennial that “jolted me
out of my complacency”; one of the other eight paintings
on his list was by Pollock. In 1957, another of Bunce’s
paintings was given a full-page reproduction in a Life
magazine story on four western painters.
As the decade closed, Bunce was commissioned by
the Port of Portland to create a mural for the new Portland
International Airport terminal.
His design for the 11-by-20-foot abstract mural plunged
Bunce into the center of a seething national controversy
over the value of non-representational art — a harbinger
of the culture wars we’re still fighting in America today.
“People want cows, or horses, or timber, or mountains,
or airplanes — something they can recognize,” a port
commissioner complained.
The mural — represented in the Hallie Ford show by a
large preliminary oil study — so enraged cultural conser-
vatives that Bunce received death threats. He had garbage
dumped on his lawn, and was under police guard. After
months of controversy The Oregonian newspaper announced
it would run no more letters to the editor on the subject.
“There are some things, such as Elvis Presley, Limburger
cheese and the sack dress, of which readers either approve or
LOUIS BUNCE
disapprove,” the paper wrote. “There is no middle ground,
no basis for compromise, and no hope that the most forceful
arguments put forth by believers will persuade nonbelievers.
In this category we would place the question of abstract art.”
But the port eventually accepted Bunce’s design, and
the mural can still be seen at the airport today.
The final years of Bunce’s career saw him explore a
variety of art forms. Some of the paintings from the late
1960s and into the ’70s are clearly influenced by Pop Art;
others express more explicitly than ever before the deep
sexuality that underscores much of his work.
In 1966, at the age of 58, Bunce married his third wife, an
18-year-old art student named Gloria Scott. The two of them
partnered with another woman, Sally Judd, to open the Sally
Judd Gallery in Portland, showing contemporary West Coast
art. (Scott divorced Bunce five years later and would go on
to marry California painter and sculptor Roy De Forest, still
known nationally for his quirky dog paintings.)
Bunce may have enjoyed his life in the fast lane, but he
never let it interfere with his art.
“Louie was a firm believer in work,” curator Hull says.
“He was a lover of social life, of women, of drinking, of
hanging out in bars. But he was in the studio every day.”
On June 11, 1983, Bunce died of an aneurysm at his
studio in southeast Portland after a day spent talking to a
friend about his work.
For lovers of Northwest painting, the Hallie Ford show
is a must-see. It’s well presented, thoughtful and sharply
focused on the development of Bunce’s vision, locating the
artist clearly in the sweep of 20th century art history.
Louis Bunce: Dialogue with Modernism runs through March 26 at the
Hallie Ford Museum of Art, 700 State Street, Salem. Open 10 am to 5 pm
Tuesday-Saturday and 1 to 5 pm Sunday. $6, $4 for seniors and $3 for
students 18 and older. More at willamette.edu/go/hfma.
MORE WAYS TO EXPLORE THE ART OF LOUIS BUNCE
UNTITLED MURAL STUDY BY BUNCE
join Portland philanthropist and former gallerist
Arlene Schnitzer to talk about “Remembering
Louis Bunce” at the Paulus Lecture Hall at
Willamette University College of Law.
And 2 pm Sunday, March 26, Roger Hull will
give a gallery talk about the retrospective at the
museum.
Finally, the exhibition is accompanied
by a 192-page monograph — much more
than a simple exhibition catalog — written by
Hull about Bunce’s life and work, with color
illustrations. It’s the latest in a series of books
published by the museum, most of them by Hull,
and most on Northwest artists from Charles
Heaney to Nelson Sandgren. The monographs
constitute the best library about Northwest art
available. The hardcover book is $39.95 at the
Hallie Ford Museum. — Bob Keefer
Eugene’s Karin Clarke Gallery is hosting a
small exhibit of work by Louis Bunce through
Feb. 25 in conjunction with the big retrospective
exhibit Louis Bunce: Dialogue with Modernism at
the Hallie Ford Museum of Art in Salem.
Louis Bunce (1907 to 1983): Selected Works
includes 15 pieces by Bunce, mostly paintings
on paper, and spans much of the artist’s working
career. The paintings are being shown here by
arrangement with Portland’s Russo Lee Gallery,
which represents the Bunce estate.
The Karin Clarke Gallery is open noon to
5:30 pm Wednesday through Saturday at 760
Willamette Street. Free.
Two free events about the exhibit will be
held this month and next at the Hallie Ford:
At 2 pm Sunday, Feb. 26, artists George
Johanson, Lucinda Parker and Jack Portland will
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