Edward M. Plunkett was born in 1922 in Highland Park, Michigan. Before coming to New York in 1949 for graduate studies at The Institute of Fine Arts and then at the Sorbonne in Paris, Plunkett attended the University of Chicago and the School of the Chicago Art Institute.

In 1952, Plunkett began as a lecturer in Art History at The City College of New York and later taught at The Chicago Art Institute. In 1970, he gave a course on The History of Motion Pictures at the Philadelphia College of Art. His paintings have been exhibited at The Whitney Museum in New York, in museums in Holland,Switzerland and The Museum of Modern Art in Paris. His work is found in numerous collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Plunkett's style is unique in contemporary art. It is a style that has developed as a result of his interest in the concept of surrealism, and in fantastic art. With fantasy in mind, he has adapted the pictorial material from the silent motion picture era to express a statement in his art that is both humorous and horrific. The Plunkett family name is eminent in Irish culture and thought E. M. Plunkett is American-born, he feels that his work and his ideas carry out the heritage of his forebearers.

Individual Exhibitions
1979 Cincinnati Art Academy
1978 Illinois Center Gallery, Chicago
1975 Hokin Gallery, Chicago
1973-71 Graham Gallery, New York
1970 Hokin Gallery, Palm Beach
1969-68 Shepherd Gallery, New York
1967 Indiana Memorial Union,
Bloomington
1964 Thor Gallery, Louisville,
Kentucky
1962 V'Soske Gallery, San Francisco
1961-64 Devorah Sherman Gallery,
Chicago
1961-59 David Herbert Gallery, New York

Collective Exhibitions
1979 University of Chicago
1977 Hokin Gallery, Chicago
1976 Stempleplatz Gallery, Amsterdam,
Holland
1975 Museum of Modern Art, Paris,
France

1974 Galerie Carre, Geneva, Switzerland
1972 Graham Gallery, New York
1970 Whitney Museum of American Art,
New York
1967 University of Maryland
1963 Devorah Sherman Gallery, Chicago
1959 David Herbert Gallery, New York
1948 Chicago Art Institute
1948 Syracuse University

Public Collections
Baltimore Museum of Art
Chase Manhattan Bank, New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Russian Tea Room, New York
Stempleplatz Gallery, Amsterdam, Holland
University of Colorado
University of Indiana
Syracuse University
University of Wisconsin