Robert Murray (1936), Canada’s foremost contemporary abstract sculptor, is known for transforming the country’s undulating, vast, and untamed terrain into bold, commanding abstract metal sculptures.
Robert Murray is a sculptor, painter, printmaker, and art teacher, born in Vancouver and raised in Saskatoon. He studied art under Ernest Lindner (1897-1988) in high school and at Saskatoon Teachers’ College under Wynona Mulcaster (b. 1915) (See much more about his further education, and the influences on his work, here.)
Murray started out as a painter and a printmaker but shifted to sculpture in 1959, when he accepted a commission to design a sculptural fountain for Saskatoon City Hall. The commission was Murray’s first attempt at designing large scale sculptural works in metal fabricating plants. Numerous monumental constructions in steel and aluminum followed, including the red painted steel sculpture entitled Ferus, which he produced at the Treitel-Gratz factory in New York in 1963. (Read more about Ferus, here)
Murray’s brightly coloured sculptures are part of the story of Canadian postwar abstract art.
In 1969, Murray represented Canada at the Sao Paulo Biennial, winning second prize. Thirty years later, he was recognized in a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada and in 2000 he was awarded the prestigious Order of Canada. Major institutions hold his works, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Gallery of Canada, the Los Angeles County Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Robert Murray’s website, here.
A good overview at Paul Kyle Gallery in Vancouver, here.
An Art Canada Institute online exhibition, here.
Sculpture at top of post: Hillary, 1983 Painted aluminum, 66 x 184 x 256 in (167.6 x 467.4 x 650.2 cm), fabricated at Lippincott, Inc., North Haven, CT. Collection of Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton Township, NJ.
This is #51 in the series 150 Artists, an ongoing series on artists you should know.
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New to me, thank you!
He seemed ahead of his time, just, for 1959.
Now he is of his time. Possibly a time he helped define.
I am humbled! I’d never heard of this gallery and it’s a hop & a skip from my own front door. Plus… I wasn’t aware of this sculptor’s name, tho’ once I finished your post, I had recognized his striking Cumbria piece, which I’ve repeatedly admired out on the UBC Campus. Alas this show just closed (and I’ve missed the Shadbolt before it), but now the gallery is on my radar. Big thanks.
The generation he is from was not that big (at least in Canada) on promotion. So there are many of us (me included) who also were not aware of this sculptor’s name. That’s the main reason I like researching for this site and reading other Canadian blogs. Learning about all kinds of not-Group-of-Seven artists whose works are so exquisite.
thinking about hidden galleries, here’s a whole civil service building functioning as one. With your Toronto b/g, you probably know it, the MacDonald Block in Queen’s Park, filled with modernist Canadian art. This link gives history & lots of thumbnails of that art: http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/explore/online/art_qp/index.aspx — I remember walking through with a civil-servant friend (it’s open, or was open, to the public wandering through) & it was jaw-dropping for its riches on walls, elevator doors, floors, windows, courtyards, you-name-it. I gather the bldg is under reconstruction, so I’m not up to date. (I particularly love tony Urquhart’s Niagra Falls Daredevil, hope it’s still there)
Always on point! I know the MacDonald Block well (having covered endless events there while reporting for CP from Queen’s Park – long ago). But I have to admit, I paid little attention to the incredible works on the walls there and in the legislative building until later in my life – when the power of paintings finally hit me. That Niagara Falls work is phenomenal, I agree (and for those reading the comments, here is what we’re talking about http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/explore/online/art_qp/big/big_29_urquhart.aspx
I find the finishes to be visually arresting. Without the color they might be interesting, but his use of color and finish really stands out.
Exactly why he was so ahead of his time (apparently) when he started out manufacturing these huge sculptures – nothing like it before, except for Alexander Calder, who was much older and remained more famous. But they did exhibit together through the years. Great comment as usual!