Ballet Dancer No. 4

Ballet Dancer No. 4 is a lithograph depicting a ballerina in motion, her upper body bent towards the ground, with most of her weight placed on her right leg. The other leg is bent at the knee and propped up on a platform of some kind. Most interestingly is the string she holds taut between both hands, seemingly guiding her stretch. The organic linework, lack of shadow, and minimal finer detail emphasizes the strength of the dancer’s form while adding fluidity. The background is mostly bare apart from the surface where she elevates her knee and what appears to be another string curling on the ground by her right foot. Light smudges of ink around the figure help her stand out in the emptiness, creating visual intrigue. This print is part of a series that Murphy created using dancers from the Ballet Russes, which was passing through San Francisco.

About the Artist

Arthur Murphy was born in Tiffin, OH, later crediting aimless walks through its woodlands for teaching him how to see as an artist (Robinson). After graduation he moved to Cleveland and began work in the art department of the Central Press Association, meanwhile taking classes at the Cleveland School of Art. In 1927 Murphy relocated to New York, continuing his studies at the Art Students League with Boardman Robinson. In 1930 Murphy took “one hell of a gamble” and left his illustrator job at the Associated Press—this during the Great Depression—to become a painter (Burkholder). He traveled West with virtually no money, riding trains with other hoboes and sketching scenery. Eventually, he settled in San Francisco, met the influential Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, and became a well-regarded painter, printmaker, and muralist. Murphy’s unconventional life path and choices of subject matter led a reviewer to remark in 1933:  “His story interests because it reveals how an artist grows up in America today, what it feels like to be an artist and what hardships may be cheerfully endured by one who feels the need to create” (Millier). All of Murphy’s work for the FAP dates to this period, nearly a hundred individual prints: series of lithographs showing steel riggers at work building the new Golden Gate Bridge; Ballet Russe dancers traveling through the city; rurally themed prints of cowboys, horses, and rodeos. “I can’t stand total realism,” he claimed, but as later critics suggested it was more a matter of matching at times wildly different styles to his wide-ranging subject matter (Cotter). After several exhibitions under the auspices of the FAP, in 1941 the San Francisco Museum of Art staged a solo show of Murphys’s considerable output. He was drafted into the Army, in 1943, as a combat artist in the Pacific. Murphy was an eyewitness to the Battle of Leyte Gulf (1944), the largest naval battle of WWII, and on land recorded war atrocities through his drawings. Years later, he still was drawing those scenes from memory. Murphy returned to the US married to an Australian partner, settled in Old Saybroook, CT, and continued with his painting supplemented by income as an art teacher. During the mid-1960s, he was instrumental in forming the Old Saybrook Artists Association, supporting others until his death in 1991. 33 works at Philadelphia Museum of Art. 25 works at MoMA. 25 works at Detroit Institute of Arts. 10 works at National Gallery of Art. 2 works at Smithsonian American Art Museum. 1 work at Whitney Museum of American Art. 119 images at GSA.

Works Consulted: Arthur Millier, “Comfort and Security Mean Nothing to Creative Artist,” Los Angeles Times 10 Sep. 1933: 26; Kenton Robinson, “He Began To Draw, Then To See,” Hartford Courant 27 Dec. 1981: 23+; Steve Burkholder, “At 80, Artist Finds New Challenges in Early Subjects,” Hartford Courant 24 Jan. 1986: 56; Holland Cotter, “A Wanderer With an Eye For Textures of His Time,” New York Times 10 Sep 1993: 73 Link.

Murphy, Arthur G.

Derrell, Emma (description)

Cooper, Keh (biography)

Helquist, Morgan (photography)

New Deal Museum, Mount Morris NY

Object #FA 1342

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Print lithograph

11-1/2" x 16 in.