ABOVE: In ironic contrast to the raw power of his art, Todd Murphy relaxes here with his friends. The painting behind him portrays Mozart's competitor, Salieri, who was consumed with jealousy over Mozart's gift of music. Murphy paints Salieri boxed in and beating against the darkness of his own mediocrity. RIGHT: Monumentality and power fill the cavernous space of Murphy's studio. At left is Daedalus, builder of the labyrinth in Greek mythology. He escaped from it by constructing wings for himself and his son, Icarus. Daedalus is often used by Murphy as a self-portrait: "I use art in the same way Daedalus used the wings."
Todd Murphy in his studio 1989 photograph by JUDITH PISHNERY
Detail " I Decline," 1989 Only the Russian word for freedom and the artist's name, both in reverse, can be read
Detail " I Decline" the shadows are of words falling from the Plexiglas cover back onto the canvas and onto the gallery wall
Detail image - Cross Roads (1990). The pose, although Murphy borrowed it from Soviet Realism, ultimately derives from images of the Classical gods.
Detail image - Cross Roads (1990). The pose, although Murphy borrowed it from Soviet Realism, ultimately derives from images of the Classical gods.
Detail - Gridded Monument Man (1990). The painting features a pair of dead bodies, whose diagonal arrangement is meant to suggest that they are just two of many.
Detail-Gridded Monument Man (1990). The painting features a pair of dead bodies, whose diagonal arrangement is meant to suggest that they are just two of many.
Male Torso, 1988
Detail Male Torso
Daedalus, (as self portrait), 1989 “I use art in the same way Daedalus used the wings.”
work in progress The Vanity of the Wishes, 1989, 96" x 192"
Detail The Vanity of the Wishes, 1989, 96" x 192"
Vanity of Human Wishes, 1989 The words on the painting are from The Vanitv of Human Wishes by the eighteenth-century writer Samuel Johnson
Gridded Monument Man (1990) The word "pithecus" scrawled across the work refers to an early primate, Australopithecus. The reference reminds us not only of how far we have evolved but of what has not changed---our mortality. The calm tone of the painting encourages a philosophic acceptance of the fact.
In "Mia's Lover" there are arms and legs which are neither and both. The bow isn't a bow. The darkness is blood. The painting is actually a photograph,the photograph many photographs torn and laced together. The paint that is there isn't on the canvas, but on Plexiglas atop the canvas. And six inches away from it is another sheet of plastic scratched and marred. This exhibit of only six paintings, but very large paintings, and a few drawings is one of the best things to be shown in this state in recent memory. BY JEFFERY DAY
“Mia’s Lover” 1990 "Mia's Lover" emerges from the dark gallery, with life sized arms and legs embracing a cello. Less Than a minute with this piece and the others in the gallery is enough to feel the power. But you could give these works 30 hours. They are worth that much time and have that much to offer. by Jeffery Day
Mona, Mona (1990) For Murphy the problematics of sexuality and knowledge suggested by Mona, Mona are not contemporary but timeless, intrinsic to the human animal,not the products of a confusing and an uncertain era.
1989 "The Art of Todd Murphy," Southern Homes. 1989
“An Artist Confronts his Heroes,” by Catherine Fox The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 29, 1990, p. D2.
Fox, Catherine. “An Artist Confronts his Heroes,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 29, 1990, p. D2.
THE ARTS ART REVIEW LUANNE SANDERS ROLL MODELS January 1991
Murphy Art Hot, Won't Burn Out, The State, by Jeffrey Day, Columbia, SC, February 3, 1991
Think Big, The State, Columbia, SC, Section F, By Jeffrey Day, January 6, 1991, pp.1,4.
Think Big, The State, Columbia, SC, Section F, By Jeffrey Day, January 6, 1991, pp.1,4
Jinkner-Lloyd, Amy. Todd Murphy At Lowe, Art In America, NYC, Volume 79, No. 6, June 1991, pp. 154-55
Jinkner-Lloyd, Amy. Todd Murphy At Lowe, Art In America, NYC, Volume 79, No. 6, June 1991, pp. 154-55