New York Artist Elizabeth Murray Dies at 66

New York artist Elizabeth Murray (who split her time between Tribeca and Washington County, NY) died yesterday after a battle with cancer at the age of 66. Her husband (with whom she had several children), Bob Holman, is the founder of the Bowery Poetry Club.






Moving to New York in 1967, she was inspired by work of many artists including Richard Serra. By 1973 she had her first solo show at the Paula Cooper Gallery in SoHo, with many accomplishments to follow (the NY Times has a good recap here). In 1999 she was the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant; and just last year there was a retrospective at MoMA covering her 40-year career, something not many women have been honored with.

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." In the '80s and '90s she brought her brand of art underground when she designed two large murals for the subway system, one at 59th Street and Lexington Avenue and the other at the 23rd Street-Ely Avenue Station.

Photos via t_a_i_s's flickr