CB 7-70

Name: Ragnar Digital, LLC
Price range: $

Colette Stuebe Bangert Charles Jeffries "Jeff" Bangert

1970

Plotter Drawing

Unique plotter drawing on paper. Mounted on foam board. Signed lower right hand corner "c.b. 7-70"

14"x24"

Description

The husband-and-wife duo Colette Stuebe Bangert and Charles Jeffries “Jeff” Bangert began experimenting with the creative possibilities of computers in 1967, when Charles, who worked at the University of Kansas’s Computation Center, was asked to test out its new plotter. Colette—an artist whose mediums included painting, drawing, and collage—suggested they use the machine to create “more satisfying images.” Their approach stands out within the field of early computer art for its combination of technical and art-historical rigor.

Charles wrote the programs for their plotter drawings in Fortran IV using a Honeywell 635 computer. The 1970 plotter drawing CB 7-70 is a typical example of the couple’s collaborative work. The shifting patterns of abstract lines in red ink are intended to evoke the grassy fields and plains of the American Midwest. For the Bangerts, these works formed a mutually enriching dialogue with Colette’s non-computer work, which was grounded in the tradition of landscape painting.