Elizabeth Murray (artist)

Infobox Artist
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name = Elizabeth Murray


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birthdate = 1940
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deathdate = 2007
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nationality = American
field = Painting, Printmaking
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Elizabeth Murray (1940 – August 12, 2007) was an American Painter, printmaker and draughtsman. Her works are in many major public collections, including those of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Museum of Modern Art [ [http://moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?artist_id=4185&printable=1&printable=1 moma.org] ] , the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art [ [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/murray_elizabeth.html artcyclopedia.com] ] , and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Life and work

Elizabeth Murray was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Murray graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1958-1962. She earned her Master of Fine Arts degree from Mills College in 1964. [ [http://www.mills.edu/alumnae/graduates.php mills.edu] ] As a student, she was influenced by painters ranging from Cezanne to Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. [Grove Dictionary of Art, Macmillan Publishers, 1996, ISBN 1-884446-00-0]

In 1967, Murray moved to New York and first exhibited in 1971 in the Whitney Museum of American Art Annual Exhibition. One of her first mature works included "Children Meeting", 1978 (now in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum, New York), an oil on canvas painting evoking human characteristics, personalities, or pure feeling through an interaction of non-figurative shapes, colour and lines. [Grove Dictionary of Art, Macmillan Publishers, 1996, ISBN 1-884446-00-0] She is particularly noted for her shaped canvas paintings. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F00EFD8123FF932A15753C1A9639C8B63&sec=&spon=&&scp=9&sq=%22elizabeth%20murray%22%20retrospective&st=cse "New York Times" "ART REVIEW; Stirring Up a Commotion on Canvas" October 21, 2005] ]

In 1999, Murray was awarded a MacArthur Foundation award (also known as the "genius grant"). [ [http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0778218.html infoplease.com] ] This grant led directly to opening of the Bowery Poetry Club, a lower east side performance arts venue run by her husband, Bob Holman.Aptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe. (2008). "Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam." "CHAPTER 26: What the Heck Is Going On Here; The Bowery Poetry Club Opens (Kinda) for Business." Soft Skull Press. ISBN 1-933-36882-9.]

In 2006, her 40 year career was honored at New York City's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2005/murray.html MoMa's Elizabeth Murray exhibition] The retrospective was widely praised, with the "New York Times" noting that by the end of the exhibition, "You're left with the sense of an artist in the flush of her authority and still digging deep."http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2005/murray.html MoMa's Elizabeth Murray exhibition] As of 2008, Murray is only one of four women artists to enjoy a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. The other three women artists are Louise Bourgeois (MoMA retrospective in 1982), Lee Krasner (MoMA retrospective in 1984) and Helen Frankenthaler (MoMA retrospective in 1989). [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/02/arts/design/02kino.html?_r=1&scp=39&sq=%22lee%20krasner%22%201984&st=cse&oref=slogin "New York Times" "A Visit With the Modern's First Grandmother" By CAROL KINO. Published: October 2, 2005.] ]

In 2007, Murray died from lung cancer at age 66. In their obituary for her, the "New York Times" wrote that Murray "reshaped Modernist abstraction into a high-spirited, cartoon-based, language of form whose subjects included domestic life, relationships and the nature of painting itself..."Smith, Roberta. [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/13/arts/design/13murray.html?_r=2&ref=design&or&oref=slogin "Elizabeth Murray, 66, Artist of Vivid Forms, Dies"] , "The New York Times", 13 August 2007. Retrieved 16 April 2008.]

The Bowery Poetry Club held a Praise Day in her honor on her honor on August 30, 2007. "Art Forum" would write that the event "provided a blend of the poignant and the comic that threatened to bring it closer to a "Saturday Night Live" skit shredding avant-garde performance practice than an actual art-world remembrance." [http://artforum.com/diary/id=15778#readon15778 "Art Forum" "Remembering Murray"] In attendance were artists Brice Marden and Joel Shapiro, writers Jessica Hagedorn and Patricia Spears Jones, and choreographers Elizabeth Streb and Yoshiko Chuma.

A second private memorial was held at the Museum of Modern Art later that Fall.

Murray was survived by her husband, Bob Holman and three children: daughters Sophia Murray Holman and Daisy Murray Holman, and son Dakota Sunseri.Smith, Roberta. [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/13/arts/design/13murray.html?_r=2&ref=design&or&oref=slogin "Elizabeth Murray, 66, Artist of Vivid Forms, Dies"] , "The New York Times", 13 August 2007. Retrieved 16 April 2008.]

References

Bibliography

* Elizabeth Murray; Francine Prose; PaceWildenstein (Firm) [http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/51910248&referer=brief_results"Elizabeth Murray: paintings 1999-2003: March 7-April 19, 2003"] (New York, N.Y.: PaceWildenstein, 2003) ISBN 1930743246
* Robert Storr; Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.) [http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/61217847&referer=brief_results "Elizabeth Murray"] (New York: Museum of Modern Art; London: Thames & Hudson [distributor] , 2005) ISBN 0870704931
* "Elizabeth Murray: Drawings", 1980-1986 (exhibition catalogue, Pittsburgh, PA, Carnegie-Mellon U.A.G. 1986)
* "Elizabeth Murray: Paintings and Drawings" (exhibition catalogue, Dallas, TX, Museum A, and elsewhere, 1987)

External links

* [http://www.artinfo.com/artists/profile/367/elizabeth-murray/ Elizabeth Murray on ARTINFO]
* [http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/murray/ Biography, interviews, essays, artwork images and video clips] from PBS series "" - Season 2 (2003).
* [http://www.askart.com/AskART/M/elizabeth_heaphy_murray/elizabeth_heaphy_murray.aspx?searchtype=SUMMARY&artist=33650 Askart.com page on Elizabeth Murray, with COLOR IMAGES]
* [http://www.mta.info/mta/aft/permanentart/permart.html?agency=nyct&line=W&artist=1&station=3 MTA Arts for Transit page on Elizabeth Murray's large-scale glass mosaic mural, Blooming, 1996]
* [http://www.mta.info/mta/aft/permanentart/permart.html?agency=nyct&line=V&artist=1&station=4 MTA Arts for Transit page on Elizabeth Murray's large-scale glass mosaic mural, Stream, 2001]