Jesse Murry (1948-1993) was an American painter and poet. Born in 1948 in Fayetteville, North Carolina, as a child he was forced to live with an aunt in New York, where he befriended Isabel Clark, a librarian at the White Plains library, who later adopted Murry.[1]

Jesse Murry
Born1948; 76 years ago (1948)
DiedJanuary 13, 1993(1993-01-13) (aged 44–45)
NationalityAmerican
Education
Known forPainting

After graduating high school, he attended Sarah Lawrence College, where he studied art and philosophy and went on to teach as Hobart and William Smith Colleges and work as a curator of work by artists such as Howard Finster. In 1984, at age thirty-five, he entered the MFA program at the Yale School of Art. He met artist Lisa Yuskavage on the day of his admissions interview. The two would be friends for the remainder of his life. After graduating from Yale, he moved to New York City, settling in the West Village with his partner George Centanni.

Murry died of AIDS-related illnesses in 1993. Critic Hilton Als has praised Murray for his "liquid awareness of how paint works on canvas, and how color and form can and should be handled delicately, and with respect."[2] Murray's favored mediums were oil and beeswax.[3]

Exhibitions edit

Solo exhibitions edit

Publications edit

Painting Is a Supreme Fiction: Writings by Jesse Murry, 1980–1993. Edited by Jarrett Earnest. Published by Soberscove Press, 2021. ISBN 9781940190303

References edit

  1. ^ Earnest, Jarrett (2 December 2021). "Landscapes of the Imagination". New York Review of Books. LXVIII (19). Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  2. ^ Als, Hilton (3 January 2019). "Jesse Murry". New Yorker. Goings On About Town. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  3. ^ "Jesse Murry". Visual AIDS. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  4. ^ "Jesse Murry". David Zwirner. Retrieved 6 December 2021.