John Jonas Gruen (born Jonas Grunberg; September 12, 1926 – July 12, 2016) was an American art critic, art historian, author, photographer, and composer.Mark Segal, "John Jonas Gruen", '' The East Hampton Star'', August 4, 2016

Early life and education

Jonas Grunberg was born Enghien-les-Bains, France, the youngest of four sons, to Abraham Grunberg who was initially a diamond dealer later became a travel writer, and Aranka Dodeles. The Jewish family moved to Berlin, Germany, in 1929; when the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

came to power in 1933, they fled persecution to Milan in 1933. The family once again moved in 1939 when they left for New York City to flee from Italian Fascism. Grunberg chose the name "John Jonas Gruen" in an attempt to Americanize himself. He learned how to speak English from Hollywood films. Gruen graduated from the High School of Commerce in New York City. Initially he attended City College of New York. Then, in an effort to assimilate, he sought attendance at what he thought to be the most American school, the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...

. Gruen

majored An academic major is the academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits. A student who successfully completes all courses required for the major qualifies for an undergraduate degree. The word ''major'' (also called ''conce ...

in art history and earned bachelor's and master's degrees in the discipline.

Career

After graduation from college, Gruen moved back to New York City where he settled in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

. He took jobs as a book buyer at

Brentano's Brentano's was an American bookstore chain with numerous locations in the United States. As of the 1970s, there were three Brentano's in New York: the Fifth Avenue flagship store at Rockefeller Center, one in Greenwich Village, and one in Whit ...

, a publicity director at Grove Press and a photographers' agent. Throughout his early years in New York, he aspired to be a composer and composed songs including settings of poetry by E. E. Cummings, Wallace Stevens and Rainer Maria Rilke. The songs were ultimately performed by

Eleanor Steber Eleanor Steber (July 17, 1914October 3, 1990) was an American operatic soprano. Steber is noted as one of the first major opera stars to have achieved the highest success with training and a career based in the United States. Biography Eleanor ...

and

Patricia Neway Patricia Neway (September 30, 1919 – January 24, 2012) was an American operatic soprano and musical theatre actress who had an active international career during the mid-1940s through the 1970s. One of the few performers of her day to enjoy equal ...

. ''New Songs'', a compilation of Gruen's work, was released in 1950 and was the first record issued by Elektra Records. He became friends with composer

Virgil Thomson Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 – September 30, 1989) was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist, a neoromantic, a neoclass ...

which inspired Gruen to contribute music reviews to the New York Herald Tribune, later becoming part of its staff in addition to acting as the paper's art critic. Using his shortened name John Gruen, he later went on to write for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', as well as being appointed as the first chief art critic of the magazine '' New York''. Later in his career with the paper, he became a dance critic as well. As a photographer, Gruen used his full name to distinguish himself from another New York photographer named John Gruen. Gruen captured images of the creative icons in his social and professional circles including

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...

Jasper Johns Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and pop art. He is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related top ...

Larry Rivers Larry Rivers (born Yitzroch Loiza Grossberg) (1923 – 2002) was an American artist, musician, filmmaker, and occasional actor. Considered by many scholars to be the "Godfather" and "Grandfather" of Pop art, he was one of the first artists ...

, Leonard Bernstein and

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning (; ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter El ...

. Many of those photographs were later acquired by the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

and presented in a 2010 exhibition, "Facing the Artist: Portraits by John Jonas Gruen". ''The Sixties: Young in the Hamptons'' (2006) and ''Two Men'' (2013) are a themed collections of his photographs.

Personal life and death

In 1948, Gruen married painter Jane Wilson, whom he met while studying at the

. Together they had one daughter, Julia Gruen, who became the executive director of the

Keith Haring Keith Allen Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) was an American artist whose pop art emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. His animated imagery has "become a widely recognized visual language". Much of his wor ...

Foundation. Gruen and Wilson remained together until her death in 2015.

Death

Gruen died at the age of 89 from natural causes at his home in New York City in 2016.

Bibliography

Among Gruen's books are ''The Private World of Leonard Bernstein'' (1968), ''The Private World of Ballet'' (1975), '' Menotti: A Biography'' (1978), '' Erik Bruhn: Danseur Noble'' (1979), ''The World's Great Ballets: La Fille Mal Gardee to Davidsbundlertanze'' (1981), ''People Who Dance: 22 Dancers Tell Their Own Stories'' (1988), ''The New Bohemia: The Combine Generation'' (1990), and ''

: The Authorized Biography'' (1992) (translated into Italian). He published his autobiography, ''Callas Kissed Me...Lenny Too!: A Critic's Memoir'', in 2008."Review: ''Callas Kissed Me...Lenny Too!''
''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', August 11, 2008

Discography

*New Songs (1951) *Contemporary Christmas Carols (1952) *Song Cycles Woodwind Quartets *Songs to Texts by James Joyce

References

External links

"John Gruen"
by James Gavin, ''

Time Out New York ''Time Out'' is a global magazine published by Time Out Group. ''Time Out'' started as a London-only publication in 1968 and has expanded its editorial recommendations to 328 cities in 58 countries worldwide. In 2012, the London edition becam ...

'', May 1–7, 2008, issue 657
John Jonas Gruen papers
at the New York Public Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Gruen, John Jonas 1926 births 2016 deaths American art historians American art critics 20th-century American historians American Jews American male non-fiction writers American photographers American composers 20th-century American male writers