Munzner was born in January 1930, in Mannheim, Germany, to Jewish parents. In 1937 his family fled Hitler's Germany to seek sanctuary with a family friend in Baghdad. They managed to procure visas to the US in 1939 because his father had been born in South Africa, and the quota for immigration from that country was not full, in contrast to Germany. They resettled first to New York City and then to Alton, New York.[2][3]
In 1955 Munzner became a professor at Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), where he continued to teach full time until 1993. He also served in many administrative roles in his years at MCAD, ranging from slide librarian in the 1950s[7] to dean of faculty in the 1990s.[6] In 1994, he became Professor Emeritus[3] and retired from undergraduate teaching but continued to mentor graduate students.[5] He fully retired from teaching in 2005, to devote his full time to painting.[4] In 1988 he was awarded an Honorary MFA at that same institution.
He studied with photomicroscopistRoman Vishniac.[4] He embarked on his decades long Genesis project which involved creating vibrant bursts of color resembling galaxies on canvas, and also encompassing monochromatic drawings with minimal elements that resemble magnified images of cells.[1][3] He has mentored many other artists including Hend al-Mansour[8][9] and Leah Golberstein.[5]
Munzner was a visiting artist at the following institutions:
On May 29, 2020, during riots in Minneapolis sparked by the murder of George Floyd, the Hexagon Bar was engulfed in flames. The fire spread next door to The Ivy, a century old building that housed the studio of Aribert Munzner along with many other artists. Due to water damage, many works from his 60-year career, including much of the Genesis Project, were damaged.[2] Sizing up the catastrophic loss the ever optimistic Munzner said,『I’m starting again because that’s what I’ve been doing all my life,』and then added, "Each moment is a magic moment"[3]
