Colorado & Regional Art

Flute Player with Corn Row Hair

Flute Player with Corn Row Hair

Year 1990

Artist Bob Ragland (1938–2021, American)

Media found objects; mixed media includes metal, rubber and plastic

Dimensions 72 x 18 1/2 x 33 1/2 inches

Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1938, Ragland settled in Denver in 1959 and attended the Rocky Mountain School of Art. He later learned to weld at the Emily Griffith Opportunity School. Ragland got his first art job in the early 1960s working weekends for a freelance, commercial art shop at 18th and Gaylord. He worked in many media and styles, but is best known for oil on masonite panels and found object sculpture, such as this musician. Ragland worked as a TV personality, instructor and lecturer but eventually devoted most of his time to making and promoting his artwork in Denver. He referred to himself as a “non-starving artist,” and wrote two booklets on the subject in the 1980s, The Artist’s Question and Answer Book and The Artists’ Survival Handbook: Or What to do Till You’re Rich and Famous.

ON VIEW in Sculpture Gallery 10

Signature Signed "Bob Ragland 1990" on left side of flute

Credit Line Collection Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art

Accession Number 2005.0223