Artist Biography & Facts

Jon Muth

Jon J Muth has written and illustrated award-winning comic books that have been published in the United States, Japan, Europe and South America. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1960. While in his teens, Muth extensively studied the works of Frank Duveneck and John H. Twachtman at the Cincinnati Art Museum. At the Freer Gallery and the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C., he also studied the works of James M. Whistler and Japanese woodblock prints. In 1982 he moved to New York to study with painter and illustrator Jeffrey Jones. In 1988, he founded The August Company, an organization to provide for development in the arts with primary emphasis on those projects, which cannot obtain sponsorship due to their untried nature or scale. In 1991 for BBC educational television, Muth wrote a short graphic story: Sharif Augustus, for which he also produced the music and narrated. In 1994, not only was Muth awarded the Sidney Laufmann Award and the Doris Lees Award in New York for excellence in drawing, he was also commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra to paint a portrait of music director, Maestro Jesús López-Cobos. The next year Jon J Muth created Imaginary Magnitude, a whimsical, fully painted comic-strip based on his relationship with his son Nikolai that ran in Japan for 3 years in the manga-magazine Afternoon. Muth also traveled to Japan to study the art of stone carving, the tea ceremony and aizome dyeing techniques. In 1999 Scholastic published his first children's book illustrations in Come On, Rain! and he was awarded the Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators. Muth's work is in numerous private and corporate collections here as well as in Europe and Japan.

Studied
Independently - works of Frank Duveneck and John H. Twachtman at the Cincinnati Art Museum, at the Freer Gallery and the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., works of James M. Whistler and Japanese woodblock prints, in Japan including stone carving, the tea ceremony, and aizome dyeing techniques; Painting Conservation, Cincinnati, OH 1979; School of Art, Woodstock, NY, Etching/Printmaking 1982; State University of New York (English) 1985.

Exhibited
PAINTINGS & DRAWINGS (solo) Boyd Gallery, Wilmington College, OH 1979; OPEN STUDIO EXHIBITION, 517 West Third, Cincinnati, OH 1980; WORKS, Night Gallery, Woodstock, NY 1985; ROMANTIC, Jack Meier Gallery, Houston, TX 1987; GROUP EXHIBITION Bologna/Landi Gallery, East Hampton, NY 1988; NEW MAGIC Cincinnati Art Galleries, OH 1989; FOUR SECTIONS (solo) Stetter Gallery, Phoenix, AZ 1991; VALENTINES DAY, Cincinnati Art Galleries, OH 1992; DRAWINGS Woodstock Artist's Association, Woodstock, NY 1994; WEATHER (solo), Stetter Gallery, Phoenix, AZ 1994; KOAN, Gomez Gallery, Baltimore, MD 2000.

Published Works
Mythology of An Abandoned City (writer and illustrator) 1982-83; Moonshadow (illustrator) with J.M. Dematteis 1983-85; Dracula: A Symphony In Moonlight And Nightmares (writer and illustrator) 1986; Meltdown (illustrator) with Kent Williams, Walter and Louise Simonson 1988; M (writer and illustrator) 1991; Vanitas 1991; Stonecutter (illustrator) with John Kuramoto 1994; The Mystery Play (illustrator) with Grant Morrison 1995; Farewell Moonshadow (illustrator) with J.M. DeMatteis 1996; Imaginary Magnitude (illustrator) with John Kuramoto 1998; Come On, Rain! (illustrator) with Karen Hesse 1999; Why I Will Never Ever…Have Enough Time To Read This Book (illustrator) with Remy Charlip 2000; Gershon's Monster (illustrator) with Eric Kimmel 2000; The Three Questions (writer and illustrator) 2001.

Awards
Doris Lees Award (excellence in drawing) 1995; Sidney Laufman Prize (excellence in painting) 1995; Eisner Award (Best Painter-Graphic Novels) 1995; Society of Illustrators Gold Medal (Children's Book Illustration) 1999.