Gear Gab the Tilt-A-Whirl in my head

Pause…art lives on.

There have been so many famous people who have died lately but none who have really moved me to write. Today I heard, a week late, that Elizabeth Murray died. I have never been a huge fan of her art but I have always had a great deal of respect and thought for it. In the mid to late 80's when I was quickly devouring modern art the Walker Art Center would constantly have her art lumped together in galleries with Frank Stella or Jasper Johns. All three of these artists were huge on the Walker's buying list and not huge on my excitement list. Still I saw enough of her art and read enough about her to appreciate what others might see.

I think what really moved me to respect her is that her art was a direct counter reaction to the art that I liked best. I was most interested in minimalism and the art of Donald Judd, Agnes Martin, as well as current artists who were more interested in the impersonal or stripping things down to their bare elements. Murray on the other hand made these huge canvas's that curved and stretched and often stuck out from the wall. They were full of color and were about personal things like coffee cups or goblets. The colors never really seemed to go together particularly well but they always caught your eye.

I have no idea if her art was a reaction to the minimal art style but it seemed so contradictory and for that it drew me in. In a way it broadened the art that I came to love and expanded my taste. I didn't really come to like her art any more but that is life.