Vignettes: The Art of J. Frank Munns
J. Frank Munns with Johnny, 2009
Born in Walla Walla in 1943, J. Frank Munns credits his insatiable appetite for the arts being sparked as a small child after his father, a wheat farmer, decided to drive the whole family to Mexico City for a vacation. An arduous trek present day, it is even more remarkable to consider this journey in the late 1940’s. Experiencing the vivid colors and visual cacophony of the open markets in Mexico City left a lasting impression on Munns. Exposure to a completely new culture also ignited a keen curiosity and a desire to learn about other configurations of human experience he carried throughout his life.
After graduating from DeSales Catholic High School, Munns pursued vocation in the Jesuit priesthood. Enthralled with the mysticism of the Jesuit’s and their deep commitment to study he left only a few years in, after falling in love with another novitiate. Following this departure, Munns was drafted into the military for the Vietnam War. Befriended by a military chaplain, he was eventually placed in a language school with the assignment of becoming an interpreter.
After his time in the service Munns went on to obtain a BA in classics from the University of WA (1966). He then transferred to Indiana University in Bloomington where he received both a MAT in Latin (1968) and a MA in Classical Archeology (1973). Later in life he returned to academia, attending the San Francisco Art Institute where he completed an MFA in Painting and Sculpture (1982).
Munns’ visionary mixed media compositions exude energy and motion and are both broadly mythological and abstractly autobiographical. His early art career focused greatly on installation and performance and drew heavily on mythic themes and ritual practices. His pieces and accompanying creative choreographies were featured in a number of museum and gallery shows, including Seattle’s Henry Art Gallery and at the Washington State University Museum of Art. His work was also part of a national traveling exhibition, “Other Gods.”
Fascinated by world religions, Munns traveled extensively himself, visiting Egypt, various countries in Africa, China, Japan, Mexico, South America. He spent time in Russia, and wandered extensively across Europe. His keen eye and brilliant mind absorbed the art, history, and culture of everywhere he touched down. The places he experienced left their mark on him and he, in turn, translated these into the literal marks filling the surfaces of his artwork.
Continuing to manage the family’s agricultural business while he pursued his art career, for much of his life Munns divided his time between residences in San Francisco, CA and in Walla Walla, WA. It was in Walla Walla he maintained his studio in a small warehouse near the Walla Walla Airport. Eventually, disillusioned by the politics of the art market Munns determined he preferred making work to promoting it. Turning away from the public aspects of performance and installation as well, though the dance and gestures of these pieces continued to be clearly visible in his mark-making, his work became a private process, a personal ritual, shown only occasionally.
The last decade of Munns’ studio practice, focused primarily on drawing and painting, was particularly generative, his creative pace almost frantic. At the time of his death in January 2013, after producing artwork for over three decades, J. Frank Munns left behind a legacy of works on paper and canvas, numerous sketchbooks, and sculptural elements. Selected from Munns’ archive, Vignettes offers brief excerpts of this remarkable body of work and a glimpse into the mind of an extraordinary artist.