Switchback

Painter, drafter, and printmaker Elizabeth Murray was born in Chicago and studied at the Art Institute (1958-62) before moving to New York in 1967. Influenced by Cézanne and the Cubists, along with Minimalist artists, Murray reveled in exploring and reinvigorating the practice of painting. Some of Murray's most celebrated works are her shaped canvases. These can be positioned somewhere between painting and sculpture-with references to the work of Jasper Johns and Claes Oldenburg.

As personal imagery was important to Murray, Switchback may depict a pair of shoes with pink "laces" threaded from one to the other-or it may show a stylized human heart, complete with blood vessels. The real subject of this work, however, is the tension generated between its richly painted, layered surface, and its wooden supports. The vivid blue and yellow hues of the two main forms repeat, switch roles, and are activated with swirling brushwork. In a general sense, titles are important in Murray's work; this particular one suggests a quick movement or sudden change of direction. Cubist artist Juan Gris's shifting viewpoints and fractured forms or painter and printmaker Philip Guston's late works with their cartoon shapes are most often referenced to describe Murray's playful treatment of abstract and representational forms that physically overwhelm the viewer. Murray herself acknowledged that she was "raised on comics and cartoons and loved the way the images jumped off the page."

In addition to Switchback, a major midcareer painting, the AMAM has a very early painting by Murray, No No It Just Can't, dating from about 1967. A gift from Robert R. Littman in honor of Douglas Baxter (OC 1972), it was purchased by the donor in 1970 directly from the artist.