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Catherine Murphy, born 1946
For decades, Catherine Murphy has been making paintings, drawings, and prints that engage rigorously with commonplace subjects through intense observation. A realist painter based in New England and New York City, she has tackled landscapes, still lifes, and figures throughout her career. She has also made self-portraiture a recurring subject, presenting her likeness in complex spaces. Unsentimental and honest, Murphy's portraits pull us into a dialogue about art and representation. In this self-portrait, made when the artist was about thirty, we see three visual planes -- the still life on the table, the artist's figure in the middle ground, and the landscape revealed through the open window behind her. The darkness of the interior and the dramatic yet soft light creates a sense of intimacy and calm strength. Murphy likens her work to poetry: "How do you take something ordinary, that people see every day, and frame it so that you change the equation? That same thing happens in a poem."
1976 |