Elizabeth Murray
American, 1940–2007
BiographyPainter, drafter, and printmaker Elizabeth Murray was born in Chicago and studied at the Art Institute (1958-62) and at Mills College (1962-64) 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 the large-scale images of Claes Oldenburg. Often referred to as a feminist, Murray is more poignantly considered a role model for younger women artists. In 2006, she became one of the very few women to be honored with a retrospective of her career at the Museum of Modern Art. She also received another more populist accolade during the late 1990s, when she was invited to create two large mosaic murals for the New York City subway-a rare distinction: Blooming (1996) is located in Manhattan's 59th Street and Lexington Avenue station, while Stream (2001) is at the 23rd Street-Ely Avenue station in Queens.