Elizabeth Murray
13 Oct - 11 Nov 2006
ELIZABETH MURRAY
Paintings 2003-2006
October 13, 2006 — November 11, 2006
PW 534 West 25th Street
NEW YORK, October 10, 2006—PaceWildenstein is pleased to present Elizabeth Murray: Paintings 2003–2006, an exhibition featuring 11 paintings and 7 mixed-media works on paper completed since 2003, opening this Friday, October 13 through November 11, 2006 at 534 West 25th Street, New York. This is the artist first solo show since her retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, opened in October 2005. A catalogue with essay by cultural critic Dave Hickey accompanies the exhibition.
Murray’s paintings are vibrant abstractions, sometime of figures and everyday objects, combined to create visual metaphors of the world around us. In his essay, Hickey says, “Of all the artists of her generation, who began their careers in the backwash of pop and minimalism, Murray alone found something to do with the pop sensibility that retains its spirit and ebullience. Murray’s paintings feel like something.... The exploding images have their own specific energy and the ludic colors have their own music.... Murray’s idiomatic form of expression may be best described as a still life painting that is anything but still.”
Elizabeth Murray (b. 1940, Chicago) received a B.F.A. from the Art Institute of Chicago (1962) and an M.F.A. from Mills College in Oakland, CA (1964). She has been awarded degrees from her alma mater, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Honorary Doctorate, 1992), Rhode Island School of Design (Honorary Degree, 1993) and the New School University (Honorary Doctorate, 2001). Murray has also received the Walter M. Campana Award from the Art Institute of Chicago (1982), the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award (1984), the Skowhegan Medal for Painting (1986), the Larry Aldrich Prize in Contemporary Art (1993), the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award (1999), and has been honored by Artists Space, New York (2001). In 1992, Murray became a member of the American Institute of Arts and Letters, New York. Murray and her husband, poet Bob Holman, were honored in June 2002 by the Anderson Ranch Art Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado with its National Artist Award. Most recently, Murray was presented with the College Art Association’s Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement at their 94th Annual Conference in February 2006.
Murray’s work has been the subject of nearly sixty solo exhibitions in galleries around the world since her New York City debut in the 1972 Annual Exhibition: Contemporary American Painting at the Whitney Museum of American Art and has participated in six Whitney Biennial exhibitions since 1973. Murray first exhibited at the Paula Cooper Gallery in 1974 and joined PaceWildenstein in 1996. In 1987-88 the Dallas Museum of Art, the Albert and Vera List Visual Arts Center at MIT, Cambridge, MA and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston jointly organized a major retrospective exhibition of Murray’s paintings and drawings that later traveled to The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Des Moines Art Center, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. In 1988 the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art exhibited Elizabeth Murray: New Work, and in 1991-92 the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH exhibited Recent Work by Elizabeth Murray. In 2002 the Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, exhibited Elizabeth Murray Paintings and Works on Paper. The Museum of Modern Art in New York invited Murray to curate Artist’s Choice—Elizabeth Murray: Modern Women in 1995 following her inclusion a few years prior in MoMA’s 1990-91 High & Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture.
MOMA also inaugurated its newly expanded museum with an Elizabeth Murray retrospective, the first show of a living artist in the new building, in October 2005, which later traveled to the Institut Valencia d’Art Modern in Spain from June 8 to September 3, 2006. Two paintings featured in Murray’s retrospective, Do the Dance, 2005, now part of MOMA’s permanent collection, and The Sun and The Moon, 2005, are also on view in Elizabeth Murray: Paintings 2003–2006.
Elizabeth Murray’s work can be found in over forty-five public collections in the United States and abroad, including: the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio; The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; The Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland; The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; Dallas Museum of Art, Texas; The Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Institut Valencia d’Art Modern, Valencia, Spain; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; The Saint Louis Art Museum, MO; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Elizabeth Murray currently lives and works in New York City.
Additional information is available upon request by contacting Jennifer Benz Joy, Public Relations Associate, at 212.421.3292 or via email at jjoy@pacewildenstein.com
© Elizabeth Murray
Muddy Waters 8:05 A.M., 2003-2004
oil on canvas on wood
9' 9" x 10' 8-1/2" x 2" (297.2 cm x 326.4 cm x 5.08 cm)
PW-36146
Paintings 2003-2006
October 13, 2006 — November 11, 2006
PW 534 West 25th Street
NEW YORK, October 10, 2006—PaceWildenstein is pleased to present Elizabeth Murray: Paintings 2003–2006, an exhibition featuring 11 paintings and 7 mixed-media works on paper completed since 2003, opening this Friday, October 13 through November 11, 2006 at 534 West 25th Street, New York. This is the artist first solo show since her retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, opened in October 2005. A catalogue with essay by cultural critic Dave Hickey accompanies the exhibition.
Murray’s paintings are vibrant abstractions, sometime of figures and everyday objects, combined to create visual metaphors of the world around us. In his essay, Hickey says, “Of all the artists of her generation, who began their careers in the backwash of pop and minimalism, Murray alone found something to do with the pop sensibility that retains its spirit and ebullience. Murray’s paintings feel like something.... The exploding images have their own specific energy and the ludic colors have their own music.... Murray’s idiomatic form of expression may be best described as a still life painting that is anything but still.”
Elizabeth Murray (b. 1940, Chicago) received a B.F.A. from the Art Institute of Chicago (1962) and an M.F.A. from Mills College in Oakland, CA (1964). She has been awarded degrees from her alma mater, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Honorary Doctorate, 1992), Rhode Island School of Design (Honorary Degree, 1993) and the New School University (Honorary Doctorate, 2001). Murray has also received the Walter M. Campana Award from the Art Institute of Chicago (1982), the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award (1984), the Skowhegan Medal for Painting (1986), the Larry Aldrich Prize in Contemporary Art (1993), the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award (1999), and has been honored by Artists Space, New York (2001). In 1992, Murray became a member of the American Institute of Arts and Letters, New York. Murray and her husband, poet Bob Holman, were honored in June 2002 by the Anderson Ranch Art Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado with its National Artist Award. Most recently, Murray was presented with the College Art Association’s Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement at their 94th Annual Conference in February 2006.
Murray’s work has been the subject of nearly sixty solo exhibitions in galleries around the world since her New York City debut in the 1972 Annual Exhibition: Contemporary American Painting at the Whitney Museum of American Art and has participated in six Whitney Biennial exhibitions since 1973. Murray first exhibited at the Paula Cooper Gallery in 1974 and joined PaceWildenstein in 1996. In 1987-88 the Dallas Museum of Art, the Albert and Vera List Visual Arts Center at MIT, Cambridge, MA and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston jointly organized a major retrospective exhibition of Murray’s paintings and drawings that later traveled to The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Des Moines Art Center, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. In 1988 the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art exhibited Elizabeth Murray: New Work, and in 1991-92 the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH exhibited Recent Work by Elizabeth Murray. In 2002 the Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, exhibited Elizabeth Murray Paintings and Works on Paper. The Museum of Modern Art in New York invited Murray to curate Artist’s Choice—Elizabeth Murray: Modern Women in 1995 following her inclusion a few years prior in MoMA’s 1990-91 High & Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture.
MOMA also inaugurated its newly expanded museum with an Elizabeth Murray retrospective, the first show of a living artist in the new building, in October 2005, which later traveled to the Institut Valencia d’Art Modern in Spain from June 8 to September 3, 2006. Two paintings featured in Murray’s retrospective, Do the Dance, 2005, now part of MOMA’s permanent collection, and The Sun and The Moon, 2005, are also on view in Elizabeth Murray: Paintings 2003–2006.
Elizabeth Murray’s work can be found in over forty-five public collections in the United States and abroad, including: the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio; The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; The Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland; The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; Dallas Museum of Art, Texas; The Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Institut Valencia d’Art Modern, Valencia, Spain; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; The Saint Louis Art Museum, MO; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Elizabeth Murray currently lives and works in New York City.
Additional information is available upon request by contacting Jennifer Benz Joy, Public Relations Associate, at 212.421.3292 or via email at jjoy@pacewildenstein.com
© Elizabeth Murray
Muddy Waters 8:05 A.M., 2003-2004
oil on canvas on wood
9' 9" x 10' 8-1/2" x 2" (297.2 cm x 326.4 cm x 5.08 cm)
PW-36146