Raymond Jonson US, 1891-1982

Biography

"My motto was: the further from realism, the closer to reality"

 

—Raymond Jonson

Painter. No stranger to the West, Iowa born Jonson moved often during his childhood. His art training began at the Portland (Oregon) Art Museum School and continued after his 1910 move to Chicago at the Academy of Fine Arts and the Art Institute. Encouraged by his teacher B.J.O. Norfeldt, Jonson became art director at the Chicago Little Theatre. His experimental stage design work and Bauhaus concepts influenced his painting, which took on distinctly abstract qualities in the twenties.

 

A 1922 summer visit to Santa Fe prompted Jonson's permanent move to New Mexico two years later. For twenty five years, he taught and painted in Santa Fe, producing rhythmic, sculpturally modeled landscapes, suggestive of a life force underlying the land. In the late thirties, he experimented with airbrush, collage, and spatter techniques. Jonson continued to work in an abstract mode after joining the University of New Mexico faculty in 1949.

 

- Courtesy of the Smithsonian

Works
  • Raymond Jonson, Watercolor No. 20, 1946
    Raymond Jonson
    Watercolor No. 20, 1946
  • Raymond Jonson, Watercolor No. 39, 1944
    Raymond Jonson
    Watercolor No. 39, 1944
  • Raymond Jonson, Watercolor No. 2, 1942
    Raymond Jonson
    Watercolor No. 2, 1942
  • Raymond Jonson, Cosmic Theme No. Five, 1939
    Raymond Jonson
    Cosmic Theme No. Five, 1939
  • Raymond Jonson, Untitled, 1937
    Raymond Jonson
    Untitled, 1937
  • Raymond Jonson, Synthesis Three, 1935
    Raymond Jonson
    Synthesis Three, 1935
  • Raymond Jonson, Nambe I, 1934
    Raymond Jonson
    Nambe I, 1934
  • Raymond Jonson, City Perspectives (2nd Version), 1933
    Raymond Jonson
    City Perspectives (2nd Version), 1933
  • Raymond Jonson, Abstraction in Blue, 1930
    Raymond Jonson
    Abstraction in Blue, 1930
  • Raymond Jonson, Dressing Table (Abstract Still Life with Nude), 1930
    Raymond Jonson
    Dressing Table (Abstract Still Life with Nude), 1930
  • Raymond Jonson, Rain and Mesa, 1930
    Raymond Jonson
    Rain and Mesa, 1930
  • Raymond Jonson, Study, Mannequin, 1926
    Raymond Jonson
    Study, Mannequin, 1926
  • Raymond Jonson, "The First Morning", 1920
    Raymond Jonson
    "The First Morning", 1920