Elizabeth Murray
American, 1940–2007
Painter, printmaker and draughtsman, Murray was born in Chicago in 1940. In 1967 she moved to New York where she worked until her death in 2007. A pioneer in painting, her distinctively shaped canvases break with the art-historical tradition of illusionistic space in two dimensions. Murray earned her B.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her M.F.A. from Mills College in Oakland, California. 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 the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; The Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, in New York City; The Art Institute of Chicago; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
“Art is an epiphany in a coffee cup.”
Photo © 2001 Sidney B. Felsen
