Basic Info
Name: Colette and Charles J. Bangert
Country of Origin: US
Website: http://www.fromheretofaraway.com/
Description
Charles Jeffries Bangert and Colette Bangert
Charles Jeffries Bangert, known as Jeff, was born in 1938 in Fargo, North Dakota. He studied mathematics at Harvard, printmaking at the Art Institute of Chicago, and earned a BA in mathematics and studio art from the University of North Dakota, later completing graduate studies in mathematics and statistics at the University of Kansas. Colette was trained as an artist. The two married in 1959 and would go on to become true pioneers in merging art and technology.
Jeff spent over three decades at KU’s Academic Computing Services, where he worked as a programmer, consultant, and statistician. His interests spanned computer graphics, data analysis, and microcomputing, often with a focus on behavioral and social science research. He was deeply committed to using technology as a tool for learning, inquiry, and human connection.
The Bangerts’ artistic collaboration began in 1967 when the University of Kansas received a plotter and Jeff was asked to test it. Working together, they began to experiment graphically with the machine, producing algorithmic line drawings that they signed “CB” (Colette-Charles Bangert). Their collaboration was a true partnership: Jeff’s programming transformed Colette’s creative vision into complex digital drawings, while their experiments with code influenced Colette’s hand-drawn work.
Their works draw inspiration from landscapes and the natural environment, featuring repetitive patterns with slight variations reminiscent of leaves, trees, grass, and other elements spreading across the paper. As Colette wrote, “A field has no center, and is not really flat, so I use no flat areas. The form of grass as grass, leaves as leaves, is what I’m exploring…Line as form. Grass as form. Grass is also random and random is a natural computer facility. Computer grass is natural grass.”
As the so-called “renaissance” of computer art began in the 1970s, the Bangerts were part of a movement of artists and critics who became more optimistic about the medium and its ability to unite scientific and cultural learning. They saw the computer as ushering in a new “visual age,” where technology could offer new ideas and enrich artistic practice by extending the artist’s physical body to enable production of new and interesting designs. Yet as Colette noted, “without conscious understanding of what a drawing is we could not use the computer as a drawing medium…We ask this new medium questions and get new (and old) answers. But some of the answers were there from the beginning…” Their work thus explores the act of creation itself, using the computer to push the boundaries of artistic praxis.
Jeff passed away in 2019 in Kansas. Colette has continued to create, though in recent years she works mostly in fiber and watercolor. The Bangerts have an international following, and their work is held in major museum collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas, cementing their role as important figures in the early days of digital art.
