Robert Murray, Skagway, 1977
Robert Murray, Skagway, 1977, painted aluminum, 195.6 x 276.8 x 91.4 cm, Collection of the Kelowna Art Gallery, Gift of Toni Onley, 2001. Photo Credit: Dan Dragan.
Skagway, 1977, is composed of folding and curving plates of metal that evoke the delicacy of paper. Light reflects off of the work’s lively surfaces at different angles, causing radical changes in the monochromatic sculpture’s rich red colour. In the early 1970s, Murray began exploring asymmetry and the ways that it can evoke a sense of movement as curves and planes shift with the viewer’s perspective―Skagway is one of many works from this pivotal period.
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.