Artwork
Untitled
Untitled is an oil painting by the Neo Expressionist artist Elizabeth Murray. It dates from 1983 and is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
About this work
Overview
Created in 1983, this untitled work by Elizabeth Murray consists of nine oil‑on‑canvas panels assembled into a single composition. The piece is part of the Museum of Modern Art’s collection and exemplifies Murray’s interest in deconstructing conventional picture planes through fragmented, overlapping forms.
Subject & Meaning
The painting presents a chaotic arrangement of vivid shapes in reds, greens, yellows, and other saturated hues. Within the disordered field a faint, distorted facial suggestion emerges from a yellow segment, hinting at a playful tension between abstraction and hidden figuration.
Technique & Style
Murray cut and re‑stacked the individual canvases, creating an unstable, puzzle‑like surface where some areas lie flat while others protrude. Thick impasto layers give the paint a sculptural quality, emphasizing texture and the physicality of the medium.
History & Provenance
After its completion in 1983, the work entered the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, where it remains on view. Its acquisition reflects MoMA’s ongoing commitment to representing post‑modern American abstraction.
Context
The piece aligns with the 1980s trend of questioning the boundaries of painting, as artists explored collage, assemblage, and the breakdown of the traditional rectangular format. Murray’s approach resonates with contemporaneous experiments in spatial disruption and the redefinition of the canvas as an object.
Artist & collection
Artist
Elizabeth Murray was an American painter, printmaker and draughtsman. Her works are in many major public collections, including those of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the…
