Gwynn Murrill
Born 1942, Ann Arbor, MI, lives and works in Los Angeles, CA
Tiger 4, 2003, Tiger 2, 2002 and Tiger 3, 2003, ea. bronze, ed. 6, 57” x 76” x 21”, 42” x 62” x 31”, 48” x 91” x 23”, Lent by the Artist
Drawing on the modernist sculptor Constantin Brancusi’s idea of pure realism represented not completely by external form but by essence as well, Gwynn Murrill conveys a sense of gravity to her animal sculptures by reducing their form to basic elements of shape, mass, volume, surface, and color. Murrill, a self-taught sculptor, characterizes her process as “take-away,” referring both to the means of making the bronze molds themselves as well as the way she leaves out the details of specificity to bring out a mythic quality in her animals.
Murrill’s sculptures are a representation of the abstract, natural forces that exist not only in the familiar animals of her everyday life in California but also the wild animals one sees displayed at the circus or zoo. In their considered poses and gestures, Murrill’s Tigers seem ready to leap off their pedestals. As part of the circus, tigers have always represented our awe and wonder of the feral world caught in captivity. In Murrill’s interpretation the activated space between the tigers and their frozen poses suggests our precarious relationship to the animal kingdom.
