Robert Munford

Robert Watson Munford (June 22, 1925 – May 28, 1991) was an American artist, educator, and founding member of the artist group Grupo Ibiza 59 in Spain. His artwork is in the permanent collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, DC), the Museum of Modern Art (New York), and the Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg (Germany). He was a pop art pioneer. Biography Early life and career Munford was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on June 22, 1925, to Camille Watson Munford and Walter F. Munford, president of the United States Steel Corporation. He attended Worcester Academy (Worcester, Massachusetts) and later joined the U.S. Army Air Corps during the Second World War. Munford decided to pursue a career in art and following the war, he studied in a number of places including Ohio State University (1946–1947), the Cleveland Institute of Art (1947–1949), the University of Bellas Artes, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico (1947), and the Art Students League of New York (1949–1951). Around 1951, he relocated to Provincetown, Massachusetts. While there, Munford exhibited at the Sun Gallery and the Babcock Gallery in New York City. He also worked as a freelance illustrator for Fortune Magazine, Esquire, and Harper's Magazine.