The Blue Veil (1.2.3.4.5.7. VI 1970) (1970)

John Murphy

acrylic on canvas

Tate, London, Liverpool and St Ives

The Blue Veil (1.2.3.4.5.7. VI 1970) (1970)

Photo credit: Tate

Classification:

Painting

Materials:

Acrylic, Canvas

Physical Object Description:

Inscribed on reverse ‘MURPHY I.VI 70/2, 3, 4, 5, 7’ and ‘MURPHY 196 (9?)-70 VILLEFRANCHE 36 × 48’, partially obscured by paint on overlap. Acrylic on cotton canvas, 36 × 40 1/2 (91.5 × 102.2). One of a series of monochrome paintings made between 1968–71.

Dimensions:

91.4 x 101.9 cm

Accession Number:

T03341

Credit:

Presented by the Contemporary Art Society, 1982

Scheme:

Historic Purchase by Purchaser (1914-2008)

Ownership history:

Purchased from the artist at Modern Art Oxford by Sir Alan Bowness (1928-2021) the Contemporary Art Society, 1972; presented to Tate, 1982

Relationship:

Alan Bowness Modern Art Oxford (Museum of Modern Art) Tate, London, Liverpool and St Ives

Subject:

Monochrome, Blues

One of a series of four out of six surviving monochrome paintings made by John Murphy between 1968-71, which he started while he was still a post-graduate student at Chelsea School of Art. Two were destroyed a flood at the artist's home in 1976. The Tate canvas was purchased at the artist's solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford by Sir Alan Bowness (1928-2021) for the Contemporary Art Society in 1972. It has an inscription on the reverse indicating that the painting was worked on the precise days: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th June, 1970. The series was influenced in part by the work of Barnett Newman. It was minimal in appearance but sought to address a metaphysical rather than a physical reality and to locate themselves at the place in which words and images cohere as poetry, evoking the work of French writer Marcel Proust. An earlier pink, orange and brown painting from the same series, originally titled ’12.8.69’, and now called Passing Time (1969) is in the Arts Council Collection.

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