Robert Murray, Cumbria, 1966–67
Robert Murray, Cumbria, 1966–67, painted Cor-Ten steel, 437 x 968 x 571 cm, Collection of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia, gift of Transport Canada, 1995. Installation view of Cumbria in Battery Park, New York, 1968, photograph by Robert Murray.
Installed at the Vancouver International Airport from 1969 to 1993, this dynamic sculpture was one of the first public artworks in Vancouver. Larger than any sculpture Murray had previously constructed, Cumbria, 1966–67, was made possible by the new partnership he established in 1966 with Lippincott, Inc., the industrial fabrication plant in North Haven, Connecticut, focused on working with artists to produce large-scale metal sculptures. This bright yellow piece is composed of two parallel plates of metal that rise from the ground at a steep angle, evoking the trajectory of airplanes lifting off the runway. According to Murray, Cumbria “can be understood as a long narrow line one moment and a hanging heavy slab or a weightless spread of colour the next.”
Gallery
Painted steel, 243.8 cm, Collection of City Hall, Saskatoon. Photo credit: Robert Murray.
Robert Murray, Ferus, 1963, painted steel, 360.8 x 111 x 56 cm, Collection of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, purchased 1999 (40049). Photo credit: Robert Murray.
Left to right: Robert Murray, Marker, 1964, painted steel, 220.8 x 53.5 x 88 cm, Collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966 (66.3708); Robert Murray, Montauk, 1964, painted steel, 274.3 cm high, location unknown; Robert Murray, TO, 1963, painted aluminum, planar column 275 cm high, tubular column 271.1 cm high, Collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Gift from the Junior Women’s Committee Fund, 1966, 65/60.1-.2. © Robert Murray; Robert Murray, Adam and Eve, 1962–63, bronze, 109.1 x 16 x 15 cm, Collection of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, purchased 1970 (16622). © Robert Murray; Robert Murray, Chief, 1964, painted steel, 231.4 cm high, Collection of Frank Stella. Photograph by Robert Murray.