Bridge Worker No. 1

This lithograph is one of several prints in Murphy’s “Bridge Worker” series in 1935, which was followed by a “Steel Riggers” series in 1936. The subject matter of both is construction of the Golden Gate Bridge whose active phase began in 1933 and was completed in 1938—one of the New Deal’s most famous infrastructure projects (see a collection of historical photos here). Virtually all of Murphy’s prints link the physical strength of men to their collective, nearly heroic, accomplishments; in this, the artist was like many others in mythicizing modern industry. Murphy’s lithograph, however, also explores an uncanny valley: the worker’s back muscles and legs are massive, so much so that his clothes barely can contain them. Wisps of torn fabric are mirrored by strands of hair, giving the worker a pre-human quality (or later in the later 20^th century, suggesting the Marvel Comics character The Incredible Hulk). Was industrial society so harshly divided into scientific brains and laboring brawn? Besides a strand of steel cable, there is little social context to the individual figure here: no co-workers or suggestions of specialized knowledge. To some extent, Murphy’s “Steel Rigger” series remediates that lack, although again their bodies are somewhat fetishized.

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.