Catherine Murphy

Catherine Murphy has been celebrated as a representational painter of exceptional precision, and this book surveys her complete work, which unites American Minimalism and American naturalist painting.

Extolled as a contemporary heir of Edward Hopper, Catherine Murphy has evolved a style acutely American that combines obsessive authenticity with Minimalist rigor. From the shaded lawns of the New Jersey suburbs to the Massachusetts woods, from childhood interiors to self-portraits and detailed images of buttons and dust, carpeted stairs, or a stuccoed ceiling, Murphy always paints and draws from life, often the domestic and quotidian. However, Murphy has distinguished her art from that of other realists, particularly in her later work, which often presents her subjects in extreme proximity to the viewer, literally “in your face.” Murphy uses painting and drawing to slow time down with intense concentration, so much so that it may take her a year to complete one painting. This volume explores Murphy’s complete body of work, from the hushed world of her early work to the hyper encounters of the present with more than 100 paintings and drawings accompanied by texts by art critic John Yau.

Poet, art critic, and curator John Yau has published more than fifty books of poetry, fiction, and art criticism. He teaches at the Mason Gross School of the Arts and Rutgers University.Svetlana Alpers is professor emerita of art history, University of California, Berkeley.