John Bunion Murray

John Bunion (J.B.) Murray (1908–1988) was a self-taught artist in Glascock County, Georgia. Murray was an illiterate sharecropper who, after a religious vision while working the fields at the age of 70, produced a remarkable body of abstract paintings in the last decade of his life. His work is now in many important collections, including that of the American Folk Art Museum[1] and the Smithsonian American Art Museum,[2] and has been featured in many museum exhibitions, including "Self-Taught Genius" at AFAM and "When the Stars Begin to Fall" at the Studio Museum.[3]

Murray's paintings are paradoxical in light of the limitations of his circumstances. Unable to read or write, in his pictures Murray invented a private language of notation, as if it were Adamic script from the late-20th century. While one might expect a septuagenarian sharecropper to create a style in a recognizable local vernacular, Murray's work, in its heightened color and abstract decorative quality, is comparable to modernist works with a mandarin appeal, by such artists as Paul Klee, Jean Dubuffet, and Howard Hodgkin, among others.

Seeing an eagle descend from the sun, Murray believed that he had been granted a privileged religious insight, which was to be the inspiration for his work as an artist.[4] Murray's revelation at the age of 70, which commenced his career as a painter, gave his work a prophetic intensity, as he believed himself a medium of God.

Art historian Mary Padgelek, who wrote a book about Murray's life and works,[5][6] has also written a musical about him: Visionary Man, being presented at the Hudson Mainstage Theater.[7][8]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.folkartmuseum.org/?t=images&id=4381
  2. ↑ http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/results/index.cfm?rows=10&q=&page=1&start=0&fq=name:%22Murray%2C%20J%2E%20B%2E%22
  3. ↑ http://galleristny.com/2014/03/terms-of-art-looking-at-the-american-south-studio-museum-considers-the-insider-outsider-divide/
  4. ↑ Mary Pagdelek, "JB Murray: This Well Grow Deep and Never Run Dry," in Raw Vision, No. 58, p. 42.
  5. ↑ Padgelek, Mary G. (2000). In the hand of the Holy Spirit : the art of J.B. Murray. Mercer University Press. ISBN 9780865546998.
  6. ↑ "J.B. Murray: Reading Meaning". The Outsider. Intuit: The Center for Outsider and Intuitive Art. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  7. ↑ "Spirited Hands Productions to Present New Musical VISIONARY MAN, 7/26-8/31". Broadwayworld.com. 24 June 2014. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  8. ↑ Walker, Alice-Denise (31 July 2014). "Visionary Man Uplifts and Inspires". Life in LA. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
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