Robert Bonaparte Large Oil on Canvas

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This is a Great painting by Robert Bonaparte, signed vertically on right edge. It is a large piece, measuring 68" … Read more This is a Great painting by Robert Bonaparte, signed vertically on right edge. It is a large piece, measuring 68" x 62". He had a nice assoc. with artist Ed Ruscha. Please see condition, and all pics, close up.

Biography from Matthew Gallery of Santa Fe, NM., off Askart:

Robert Bonaparte was born in 1933 and grew up in Oklahoma City where he was boyhood friends with Ed Ruscha. In an oral history interview conducted for the Archives of American Art, Ruscha mentions that he was first exposed to art-making by his friend “Bob” Bonaparte who lived two doors away. He recalled that Bonaparte was “able to draw very well” and that Bonaparte “drew cartoons and he introduced me to the first factor in my life with art, which was India ink”.

In 1959, Bonaparte and other young Oklahoma artists including Ruscha, Joe Goode, Jerry McMillan, and Mason Williams moved to Los Angeles in order to get involved with the burgeoning art scene there.

Bonaparte’s work features soft fauvist colors, a subtle sense of whimsy and an occasional nod toward surrealism. Many of his works have enigmatic narrative components that invite the viewer to consider an underlying story but never fully reveal it. A set of apparent personal symbols reappear in many of his paintings further adding to the enigmatic and cryptic nature of some of his artworks.

In addition to his paintings, Bonaparte has had work published by Hamilton Press in Los Angeles. The Press was founded by Tamarind Master Printer Ed Hamilton and Ed Ruscha.

In 2007, Bonaparte exhibited an installation of 21 oil paintings in a group show at the Untitled Gallery in Oklahoma City along with works by Ed Ruscha, Joe Goode, Jerry McMillan, Mason Williams and Lee Mullican. See less