"My life has been painting and painting has been my life." - Raymond Jonson (1891-1982)

Raymond Jonson was instrumental in developing a distinctive abstract movement in New Mexico, and the art gallery at the University of New Mexico (where he was an art professor) bears his name: Jonson Gallery.

Jonson often referred to himself as an "evangelist" for modernist art in New Mexico and said, "if our age leaves anything to posterity in art it will be the abstract."

Ed Garman, Jonson's biographer, was also his close friend. He wrote, "To those who know him only through his art, Raymond Jonson stands for a particular kind of painting. To those who know him as a person his name stands for a particular way of life, a life which has been satisfying to Jonson and meaningful to others as an example of single-minded devotion to an ideal."

This rare signed copy of The Art of Raymond Jonson by Ed Garman (1977) is a limited edition out of print book in absolutely pristine, mint condition. Unsigned copies sell for $100. This is the definitive biography of Jonson and includes an extensive list of Jonson's paintings with many color lithograph illustrations.

Also included is a an 8-1/2" x 11" oak-framed color photographic print taken of the original Virgo (1940), Jonson's watercolor rendering of the astrological sign. The painter allowed Robert Hay, the donor and person to whom the book is signed, to photograph some of his original work in 1978 while Mr. Hay was doing research on the Transcendental Painting Group in New Mexico.