Elizabeth MurrayAmerican Artist

1940-2007

Elizabeth Murray in her studio

Shaped Canvas

Elizabeth Murray was born in Chicago in 1940. She earned a BFA at the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from Mills College in Oakland, California.

A pioneer in painting, Murray’s distinctively shaped canvases break with the art-historical tradition of illusionistic space in two-dimensions. Jutting out from the wall and sculptural in form, Murray’s paintings and watercolors playfully blur the line between the painting as an object and the painting as a space for depicting objects.

Her still lifes are reminiscent of paintings by masters such as Cézanne, Picasso, and Matisse; however, like Murray’s entire body of work, her paintings rejuvenate old art forms. Breathing life into domestic subject matter, Murray’s paintings often include images of cups, drawers, utensils, chairs, and tables. These familiar objects are matched with cartoonish fingers and floating eyeballs—macabre images that are as nightmarish as they are goofy.

Taken as a whole, Murray’s paintings are abstract compositions rendered in bold colors and multiple layers of paint, but the details of the paintings reveal a fascination with dream states and the psychological underbelly of domestic life.

The recipient of many awards, Murray received the Skowhegan Medal in Painting in 1986, the Larry Aldrich Prize in Contemporary Art in 1993, and a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award in 1999.

Her work is featured in many collections, including Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Elizabeth Murray lived and worked in New York, and died in August 2007.

http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/elizabeth-murray?gclid=CMaf2enRyqwCFeldtgodXw4SqA

Murray at the Nelson-Atkins Museum

• Art Part, 1981 • Oil on 22 canvases

9 feet 7 inches x 10 feet 4 inches (292.1 x 314.96 cm)• Purchase: acquired through the generosity of the William T. Kemper Foundation---Commerce

Bank, Trustee, 2000.19.A-V • Elizabeth Murray’s canvases often feature lively, cartoon-like images. In Art Part, a green hand

grasping a white and reddish paintbrush trails a meandering brushstroke.• The hand and brush function as symbols of the artist and impart layers of art historical and

autobiographical significance. For instance, through the 1970s and early 1980s many younger artists and critics believed that further innovation in painting was impossible. Consequently, many artists chose to work in sculpture, film and video, or performance art. Murray’s decision to paint recognizable images upset art world conventions. The power with which Art Part seems to explode may allude to this situation.

• Art Part can also suggest personal themes. Regarding an earlier painting Murray stated, “out of shattered pieces, I believed I could make a whole. This applied to my art and my life.”

Inspired byWillem de Kooning

The Project

• Now create a 3-D canvas using whimsy as your premise.

• Decide on a base shape. Add pieces and decide how to paint them. What colors will you use? Decide how line and shape will create movement and rhythm. Use asymmetrical balance and contrast.

• Have fun with this! Be creative!