Colette Bangert facts for kids
Colette Stuebe Bangert (born in 1934 in Columbus, Ohio) is an American artist. She creates both traditional art, like paintings and drawings, and special computer-generated artworks. Her computer art was made with her husband, Charles Jeffries "Jeff" Bangert, who was a mathematician and computer programmer. They worked together for many years to create these unique digital pieces.
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Early Life and Learning
Colette Bangert went to Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, Indiana, from 1948 to 1952. In 1952, she started studying at the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis. She focused on painting and lithography and earned her degree in 1957. She then got a master's degree in Painting and Drawing from Boston University in 1958. In Boston, she met Charles Bangert, who was studying math at Harvard University. They got married in 1959.
Her Art Career
Traditional Artworks
Early in her career, before she started making digital art, Colette Bangert's paintings and drawings were noticed by art critics. She has continued to create drawings, watercolors, paintings, and textile art throughout her life. The special computer methods she and her husband developed for digital art actually grew from her drawing practice. These methods also influenced her traditional art.
Her artwork often shows the landscapes of the American Midwest. This feeling comes through in how she uses lines and organizes space. Lines and space can be studied and created using computer code. Working with Jeff, the computer helped them understand "what a drawing about landscape can be" in new ways. Colette Bangert has continued to show both her traditional and computer-generated artworks.
Computer-Generated Art
Starting in 1967, Colette Bangert and her husband began creating "algorithmic drawings." These are drawings made using special computer instructions, or algorithms. Their first computer art was made at the University of Kansas Computer Center. It was printed using a machine called a plotter. Colette's signature "CB" showed that it was a team effort.
In 1968, sculptor Robert Mallary visited them. He said that Jeff, as the programmer, helped the computer create endless versions of the drawings Colette made by hand. The computer software allowed them to explore how math rules could create drawings.
The Bangerts saw the computer as both a tool for exploring the world and a partner in making art. An artist draws lines on paper using their ideas. A plotter draws lines on paper using math ideas. If the computer's math rules could copy the artist's drawn lines and create many images, then it was also exploring what drawing is about. The Bangerts even said, "Computer grass is natural grass," meaning the computer could truly capture natural forms.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the Bangerts were very active in the growing world of digital art. Their work was shown in museums and traveling exhibits. It was also discussed in art conferences and journals. Their computer art methods were part of a new wave of digital artists.
Early computer art often looked very precise and geometric. Many of these artists were scientists or engineers. But the next generation, often trained as artists, started making more "natural" forms. Art historian Grant Taylor noted that the exactness of 1960s computer art changed to be less perfect and more varied.
Colette's studies of grass, turned into computer instructions, became fields of computer-generated grass in her Land Lines series from the 1970s. In works like Large Landscape: Ochre & Black (1970) and Grass Series (1979–1983), simple shapes like lines and curves were changed by computer rules. They were then arranged by chance or by special ordering rules. This created abstract landscapes and natural patterns.
Early algorithmic drawings focused on lines and where they were placed on the paper. Later works, like Dawn Study (1989), used empty space and flat colors as important parts of the design. The "mud crack" series from 2004, like Three A, also explored how space is divided. Later images, such as AC2923 IAM=4 (2008), became simpler, with basic elements arranged vertically. The last digital works by the Bangerts, The Plains Series II (2012), returned to horizontal landscape lines with soft, colorful layers.
Selected Art Shows and Collections
Solo Exhibitions
- 1963, Krasner Gallery, New York City.
- 1966, Mulvane Art Museum, Topeka, Kansas.
- 1971, Mulvane Art Museum, Topeka, Kansas. (Computer drawings)
- 1982, Lawrence Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri. Grass and other computer drawings, 1967–1982.
- 2016, Kansas City Artists Coalition, Kansas City, Missouri. Alone and Together: Colette And Jeff Bangert A Retrospective.
Selected Group Exhibitions
- 1970, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. New Directions in Media: Computer and Laser Art.
- 1970, Association for Computing Machinery, New York City. National Exhibition of Computer Art. (Won First Prize)
- 1974, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal, Canada. Le Musée Cybernétique, an international show.
- 1987, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York. Computers and Art.
- 2018, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England. Chance and Control.
- 2019, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas. Traces: Women and Abstraction in the 20th Century.
Collections Where Her Work Is Held
- Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen, Germany
- Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
- Mulvane Art Museum, Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas
- Museum of Modern Art, New York City
- Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England
- Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation, Chicago, Illinois and Santa Fe, New Mexico
See also
