Charles S. Klabunde (born October 1, 1935) is an American artist whose work has been characterized both as existential realism and as fantastical symbolism. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska. Klabunde began drawing as a young boy. Because he was learning disabled, his parents encouraged him to become a house painter. It never occurred to anyone, including Klabunde, that art would become his career. After high school, Klabunde studied drafting at the Omaha Technical School. When he completed the program, he went to work for his grandfather, an engineer, as a surveyor for a new housing development. Klabunde had no plans to attend college until a co-worker his own age persuaded him to enroll. Klabunde earned his B.F.A. in 1958 from the University of Nebraska and then attended graduate school at the University of Iowa, earning his M.F.A. in 1962. While at Iowa, he met the Argentine printmaker, Mauricio Lasansky, who encouraged him to build a career as an etcher. In 1965 Klabunde moved to Edgewater, New Jersey, and working as a designer of interiors - classrooms and labs - for NYU. In 1967,he found an apartment in Greenwich Village and was able to open his first studio. One of his first commissions was from Lublin Graphics, which led to shows at local galleries. Soon, about 30 galleries were carrying his work. Museums, too, were receptive to his work. The first to purchase one of his pieces was the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1971, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship. Klabunde's is a prolific printmaker and painter. His prints are made on a custom-made English press using four-color, hand-engraved copper plates, which produces contours and colors with an antique appearance. He mixes his own ink and hand-pulls each print.