Raymond Jonson

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Alt text: Abstract acrylic and polymer painting with Z shape across the top
Alt text: Abstract acrylic and polymer painting with Z shape across the top, framed
Alt text: Detail of signature
Alt text: Verso of abstract painting 
Alt text: Verso detail of abstract painting inscribed

Raymond Jonson
American, 1891 – 1982
Polymer No. 11, 1975
Acrylic on Masonite
42 H. x 42 W. inches 

Alt text: Abstract transcendental painting

Raymond Jonson
American, 1891-1982
Casein Tempera No 4, 1942
Tempera on paper
28 H. x 24 W. inches
Signed, titled, numbered & dated verso

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Alt text: Abstract gouache painting coated with latex portraying three different size rectangles overplayed with other shapes
Abstract gouache painting coated with latex portraying three different size rectangles overplayed with other shapes, framed
Alt text: Detail of gouache verso signed and inscribed

Raymond Jonson
American, 1891 – 1982
Gouache No. 1, 1948
Gouache coated with latex
20 H. x 22 W. inches
Signed lower right

Artist Biography

Raymond Jonson spent most of his career in search of pure abstraction. Born in Iowa and raised in Portland, Oregon, he studied art in Chicago at the Academy of Fine Arts and the Art Institute, where he first encountered non-representational painting. When the Armory Show came to Chicago in 1913, Jonson discovered the work of Wassily Kadinsky and was struck by the artist’s spiritual approach. In Chicago, Jonson and friend B.J.O. Nordfeldt were involved in early experimental theater, but by 1925 Jonson moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to devote himself to painting. There, he was an important advocate for modern art, painting six WPA murals at the University of New Mexico (where he was professor for 20 years) and co-founding the Transcendental Painting Group of non-objective artists, which aimed to explore spirituality through art.