Eleanor Munro

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Eleanor Munro
Born
Eleanor Carroll Munro

(1928-03-28)March 28, 1928
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
DiedApril 1, 2022(2022-04-01) (aged 94)
Rye, New Hampshire, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materSmith College (BA)
Columbia University (MA)
Known forAssociate editor, art writer and reviewer, ARTnews
The New Republic,
The Atlantic,
Saturday Review,
Vogue,
Ms.
Notable workOriginals: American Women Artists, Simon & Schuster
MovementContemporary art, feminist art, art by women and people of color
Spouses
Alfred M. Frankfurter
​
​
(m. 1960; d. 1965)​
​
​
(m. 1969; d. 1994)​
Children2
AwardsCleveland Arts Prize for Literature (1988)
Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award

Eleanor Carroll Munro (March 28, 1928 – April 1, 2022) was an American art critic, art historian, writer, and editor. She was known for her work on women artists. Some of her published books included The Encyclopedia of Art (1961), Originals: American Women Artists (1979); Memoirs of a Modernist's Daughter (1988), Through the Vermilion Gates (1971), and On Glory Roads: a Pilgrim's Book about Pilgrimage (1988).[1][2][3] Munro was also known for her published interviews with women artists of note including Louise Bourgeois, Helen Frankenthaler, Jennifer Bartlett, Julie Taymor, Louise Nevelson, Maya Lin, and Kiki Smith.[4][5] Munro received the Cleveland Arts Prize for Literature in 1988.

Early life[edit]

Munro was born on March 28, 1928, in Brooklyn. Her mother, Lucile Nadler, was a pianist, and her father, Thomas Munro, an art educator.[6] Her family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, when her father found a job with the Cleveland Museum of Art as a curator. Munro studied at the Hathaway Brown School and later graduated from Smith College in 1959. She studied in Paris at the Sorbonne University before returning to the United States to complete her master's degree at Columbia University.[7]

Career[edit]

Munro started her career in the 1950s as an associate editor and then managing editor of ARTnews magazine and Art News Annual. She later went on to be a contributing editor to The New Republic, The Atlantic, Saturday Review, Vogue, and Ms. Magazine, among others.[8] In 1979, her book Originals: American Women Artists was published. The book has profiles and interviews with noted women artists of the time including Georgia O'Keeffe, Alice Neel, Anne Truitt, Joan Mitchell, and others. In the book, she documented some of the struggles faced by the women artists and the evolving art landscape.[7] Throughout her career, she published interviews with women artists including Louise Bourgeois, Helen Frankenthaler, Jennifer Bartlett, Julie Taymor, Louise Nevelson, Maya Lin, and Kiki Smith.[4][5] In addition to writing on art and artists, she also wrote on travel. Her 1987 book On Glory Roads: A Pilgrim’s Book About Pilgrimage had her visiting Jerusalem, Buddhist temples in Indonesia, and Hindu temples in India bringing together travel from the lens of pilgrims.[7]

Munro was awarded the Cleveland Arts Prize for Literature in 1988;[4] and the Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.[9] In 1990s, she was visiting fellow at the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Federation, Princeton, New Jersey. In 1991, Munro was awarded a residency fellowship at the Bellagio Study Center in Lake Como, Italy. In 1984, she received a residency fellowship to Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, New York.[7][10][11][12]

Munro served on the board of directors of the Truro Center for Arts, (Massachusetts) starting in 1979; the board of The Living Theatre, New York City, starting in 1989; and was a member of the Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists Association, the American International Association Art Critics, and the Authors Guild.[13][14][15]

Personal life[edit]

Munro married Alfred M. Frankfurter, editor of the ARTnews magazine, in 1960; they remained married until his death in 1965.[7] The couple had two sons, one of whom died in 1993. In 1969, she married Ely Jacques Kahn Jr., a writer with The New Yorker. Kahn predeceased her in 1994.[7]

Munro died on April 1, 2022, in Rye, New Hampshire, from complications of dementia. She was aged 94.[7]

Books[edit]

  • Munro, Eleanor C. (1961). The encyclopedia of art, painting, sculpture, architecture, and ornament, from prehistoric times to the twentieth century. New York: Golden Press.
  • Munro, Eleanor C.; Rudorff, Raymond (1961). Art treasures of the world: an illustrated history in colour; with short biographies of artists; painting, sculpture, architecture, and ornament, from prehistoric times to the twentieth century. London; New York: Hamlyn.
  • Munro, Eleanor C.; Rudorff, Raymond; Vandegrift, Kate (1964). Art treasures of the world: an illustrated history in color. London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Munro, Eleanor C. (1971). Through the vermilion gates: a journey into China's past. New York: Pantheon Books. ISBN 978-0-394-82034-7.
  • Munro, Eleanor C. (1987). On glory roads: a pilgrim's book about pilgrimage. New York: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-24127-1.
  • Munro, Eleanor C. (1988). Memoir of a modernist's daughter. New York: Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-81605-7.
  • Munro, Eleanor C. (1989). Wedding readings: centuries of writing and rituals on love and marriage. New York: Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-81088-8.
  • Munro, Eleanor C. (2000). Readings for remembrance: a collection for funerals and memorial services. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-028064-7.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Johnson, Joyce (August 21, 1988). "Love Among the Ism's". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 5, 2017. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
  2. ^ Kriel, Margot (Spring–Summer 1980). "Reviewed Works: Originals: American Women Artists by Eleanor Munro;". Woman's Art Journal. 1 (1): 60–63. doi:10.2307/1358021. JSTOR 1358021.
  3. ^ "Eleanor Munro". New York Institute for the Humanities. Archived from the original on January 6, 2017. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
  4. ^ a b c "Eleanor Munro, author". clevelandartprize.org. Archived from the original on September 9, 2015. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
  5. ^ a b "Eleanor Munro papers, circa 1880-2011, bulk 1950-2011 Munro, Eleanor, 1928- Writer". American Archive of Art. Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original on January 6, 2017. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
  6. ^ Solomon, Deborah (September 1988). "Daddy Dearest: A review of Night Studio by Musa Mayer & Memoir of a Modernist's Daughter by Eleanor Munro". The New Criterion. Archived from the original on January 5, 2017. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Genzlinger, Neil (April 9, 2022). "Eleanor Munro, Who Profiled Women Artists, Is Dead at 94". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 10, 2022. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  8. ^ "The Virtues of Staying at Home/About Eleanor Munro". Cincinnati Magazine: 64. August 1980. Archived from the original on April 17, 2022. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
  9. ^ "The National WCA Presents the 2003 Lifetime Achievement Awards". nationalwca.org. National Women's Caucus for Art. August 2, 2018. Archived from the original on October 17, 2020. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
  10. ^ "Eleanor Munro papers | Contents | SOVA". sova.si.edu. Archived from the original on May 17, 2021. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  11. ^ "Series 3 | A Finding Aid to the Eleanor Munro papers, circa 1880-2011, bulk 1950-2011 | Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution". www.aaa.si.edu. Archived from the original on April 10, 2022. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  12. ^ "A to Z of American Women in the Visual Arts (Facts on File Library of American History)". silo.pub. April 1, 2008. Archived from the original on April 17, 2022. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  13. ^ "Eleanor Munro papers, circa 1880-2011, bulk 1950-2011". Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art. Archived from the original on January 6, 2017. Retrieved January 20, 2017.
  14. ^ "A Finding Aid to the Eleanor Munro Papers, circa 1880-2011, bulk 1950-2011, in the Archives of American Art" (PDF). Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 17, 2022. Retrieved January 20, 2017.
  15. ^ "Truro Center for the Arts". Board of Directors, Honorary Board. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved January 20, 2017.
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