Charles Munch (painter)
Encyclopedia
Biography
Munch and his four brothers and sisters, including his twin sister, were raised and attended public schools in Webster Groves, a suburb of St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
where he was actually born. They spent summers in Door County, Wisconsin
Door County, Wisconsin
Door County is a county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of 2000, the population was 27,961. Its county seat is Sturgeon Bay. Door County is a popular vacation and tourist destination, especially for residents of Wisconsin and Illinois....
, where Munch was impressed by the clarity of light and color on the shore of Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
.
After spending two years at Reed College
Reed College
Reed College is a private, independent, liberal arts college located in southeast Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus located in Portland's Eastmoreland neighborhood, featuring architecture based on the Tudor-Gothic style, and a forested canyon wilderness...
, Portland
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, and beginning his training as an artist with realist painter Willard Midgette
Willard Midgette
Willard Franklin Midgette was an American painter and printmaker associated with the second generation of Contemporary American Realist painters.Midgette was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Ernst Midgette and Mary Midgette...
, Munch attended the Portland Art Museum
Portland Art Museum
The Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon, United States, was founded in 1892, making it the oldest art museum on the West Coast and seventh oldest in the United States. Upon completion of the most recent renovations, the Portland Art Museum became one of the twenty-five largest art museums in...
School and the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture. He returned to Reed College
Reed College
Reed College is a private, independent, liberal arts college located in southeast Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus located in Portland's Eastmoreland neighborhood, featuring architecture based on the Tudor-Gothic style, and a forested canyon wilderness...
and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1968, majoring in painting.
Munch apprenticed himself to William Suhr, who was paintings conservator for the Frick Collection
Frick Collection
The Frick Collection is an art museum located in Manhattan, New York City, United States.- History :It is housed in the former Henry Clay Frick House, which was designed by Thomas Hastings and constructed in 1913-1914. John Russell Pope altered and enlarged the building in the early 1930s to adapt...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He worked part time as a freelance paintings conservator for the next thirty years. In 1970 he and Jane Furchgott began two years of travel, visiting most of the major museums in the United States and western Europe. They finally settled in Sturgeon Bay
Sturgeon Bay
Sturgeon Bay is an arm of Green Bay extending southeastward approximately 10 miles into the Door Peninsula at the city of Sturgeon Bay, located approximately halfway up the Door Peninsula. The bay is connected to Lake Michigan by the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal. Three bridges cross the bay, including...
, Wisconsin, where Munch developed a detailed realistic style of painting.
During the course of six months in 1981, Munch transitioned from his realistic paintings to a style that was brightly colored, formally simplified, and emotionally expressive—a blend of elements including early Italian Renaissance
Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...
, Post-Impressionism
Post-Impressionism
Post-Impressionism is the term coined by the British artist and art critic Roger Fry in 1910 to describe the development of French art since Manet. Fry used the term when he organized the 1910 exhibition Manet and Post-Impressionism...
, and Pop Art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
. His distinctive form of representation uses broad outlines and contrasting interior colors to create luminous light and atmosphere. The deceptively simple forms and large areas of clear color in his paintings combine to create unforgettable icons of psychological drama. His subjects vary, but the emphasis is on northwoods landscapes and the animals and people that inhabit them.
Since 1982 Munch has lived on a remote hilltop near Lone Rock, Wisconsin. He has exhibited extensively, including major exhibitions at the Milwaukee Art Museum
Milwaukee Art Museum
The Milwaukee Art Museum is located on Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.Beginning around 1872, multiple organizations were founded in order to bring an art gallery to Milwaukee, as the city was still a growing port town with little or no facilities to hold major art exhibitions...
, The Chicago Cultural Center
Chicago Cultural Center
The Chicago Cultural Center, opened in 1897, is a Chicago Landmark building that houses the city's official reception venue where the Mayor of Chicago has welcomed Presidents and royalty, diplomats and community leaders. It is located in the Loop, across Michigan Avenue from Millennium Park...
, The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art — MMoCA, formerly known as the Madison Art Center, is an art museum located in Madison, Wisconsin. A three-story glass facade "icon" on the corner of State and Henry Streets serves as the museum's main staircase, as well as its architectural...
, and a retrospective at The Fairfield Center for Contemporary Art. He has shown regularly at the Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee; the Grace Chosy Gallery, Madison, Wisconsin; and Perimeter Gallery.