Elizabeth Murry

US 1940-2007

For International Women’s Day we looked at the work of Elizabeth Murry, a prominent American artist known for her innovative use of color and shape in her paintings and sculptures. Born in Chicago in 1940, she studied at the Art Institute of Chicago before moving to New York City in the 1960s, where she began to make a name as a contemporary abstract artist. She rose to fame in the 1970s during the height of the feminist art movement. Murray was known for her vibrant and colorful paintings, which often incorporated three-dimensional shapes and forms, pushing the boundaries of traditional painting techniques and challenged the notion of what fine art could be. She was an artist at the forefront of American painting for five decades and is considered one of the most important postmodern abstract artists of her time. She was the recipient of numerous awards and honors throughout her career, including a MacArthur Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, the Walter M. Campana Award from The Art Institute of Chicago, inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an honorary Doctorate from the Art Institute of Chicago, and an honorary degree from Rhode Island School of Design. She has been exhibited in major museums and galleries around the world and received a career retrospective in 2007 at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Her work can be found in over ninety international collections.

ABERNETHY CLASSES

Our mixed media collage paintings

inspired by Elizabeth Murry were

created with Kwik Sticks, markers,

and colored paper. Some of the

concepts we discussed were

composition, organic shapes, positive

and negative space, and motion in art.

They turned out lively, colorful, and

full of energy. Just like the class, sparkling.

TABOR CLASS