JOHN JONAS GRUEN

 

 

 

1926                            Born: Enghien-les-Bains, France, September 12, 1926

1944                            City College of the New York City of New York

1947                            BA, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

1949                            MA Degree, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

 

1948                            Married Jane Wilson, painter.

 

1950 – 1960                Photographed New York City’s and Hamptons’ artists and writers

during  the 1950s: his photographs, especially his portraits, stand as a definitive record of the East End art colony since 1957.

 

1955 – 1960                Worked for Ralpho-Guillumette Photo Agency in New York

 

1960 – 1967                Art and Music Critic: New York Herald Tribune

 

1969 – 1975                Chief Art Critic: New York Magazine

 

1975 – 2000                Cultural Writer (Freelance) New York Times

                                    Wrote extensively for Vogue (Columnist), Art News (Contributing

Editor), Architectural Digest (Contributing Editor) and Dance

Magazine (Senior Editor)

 

Selected Exhibitions

 

September 2007          Classic Sag Harbor Houses photographs by John Jonas Gruen

                                    The Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY

 

2005                            The Artist’s Gaze – photographs by John Jonas Gruen. Summer.

                                    Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, NY

 

Young in the Hamptons – photographs by John Jonas Gruen. Summer. Hampton Road Gallery, Southampton, NY

 

The Comfort of Sameness: photographs by John Jonas Gruen,

Oct 8 – Nov 5, The Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY

 

2004                            Red, White and Blue in Black and White: photographs of the American Flag by John Jonas Gruen. Fall. Southampton Historical Museum, Southampton, NY

 

2003                            Facing the Artist – photographs by John Jonas Gruen,

Jan. 11 – Feb. 23, McKinney Avenue Contemporary’ Dallas, TX

2000                            Land/Sea/Sky – paintings by Jane Wilson, photographs by John

                                    Jonas Gruen. Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY.

                                    Carl van Vechten/John Jonas Gruen, July – September, Pfizer

Learning Center, New York, NY; Hammond Museum, North

Salem, NY

 

1999                            Facing the Artist – Photographs by John Jonas Gruen, Summer.

Guild Hall, East Hampton, NY

 

1997                            The Artist Observed: Photographs by John Jonas Gruen, Jan. 11 –

Feb. 8, 1997, Earl McGrath Gallery, New York City, NY

 

1994                            Jason McCoy Gallery, New York City, NY

 

1993                            Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, East Hampton, Long Island

                                    Bianca Lanza Gallery, Miami, FL

                                   

                                    Public Collections:

                                    The Whitney Museum of American Art, NY

                                    The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY

 

Solo Shows   

 

2010                            July 15 – August 2, galleryB, Sag Harbor, NY          

 

                                    Facing the Artist: Portraits by John Jonas Gruen, June 3 – August 8,

                                    Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

 

Group Shows

 

2001                            Streets and Public Places, Jan 13 – Feb 28, Candace Dwan Gallery,

Katonah, NY

 

 

Books

 

2008                            Callas Kissed Me… Lennie Too! A Critic’s Memoir (Power House

Books)

 

2006                            John Jonas Gruen: The Sixties Young in the Hamptons, Charta

 

1999                            John Jonas Gruen: Facing the Artist, Prestel Verlag

 

1991                            John Gruen, Keith Haring: The Authorized Biography, New York:

Simon and Schuster

 

1972                            John Gruen, The Party’s Over Now: Reminiscences of the Fifties.

                                    New York: Viking Press

 

1968                            John Gruen, The Private World of Leonard Bernstein. New York:

                                    Viking Press

 

1967                            John Gruen. The New Bohemia, New York: Grosset & Dunlap