butch Murphy: selected works

Join us to celebrate the opening of an exhibition by local artist, “butch”. Equestrian sculptures take residence in the all four of our front galleries. butch’s sculpture practice came late in life as he searched for a meaningful form of expression and creativity. He was mentored by his long term friendship with Michel Beaudry and Bonnie Baxter giving him hints, encouraging him without dogma. Murphy’s life long partner, Corva, with her foundation in Art History, provided an academic data base. butch continues benefiting by the support of the members of Oval Table, an artist salon, and other collegial artists. Along with Corva, he formed and produces two successful organizations, The Oval Table, 2017, and the Oak Hall Art Soirées, 2016. Early on he exhibited in local galleries in Columbia, Missouri, with a solo show of 7 sculptures at the Ashby Hodge Gallery of American Art. With Murphy’s networking, he developed several ongoing venues for public display of his works in Mid Missouri, Kansas Flint Hills, the Kansas City metro area, South Carolina and Oklahoma. Although he has focused on horses for models, he explores other forms of pure abstraction. After opening his studio in 2011, he has completed more than 50 abstract horse sculptures and in 2021 he was advanced to a higher level of acknowledgement when one of his sculptures standing across the street from the Kemper Museum of Modern Art in Kansas City, was stolen and with the exception of its tail it was never recovered.

In the words of the artist:

I’m the creator, fabricator and abstract metal sculptor, autodidact by training, combining new and found carbon steel producing representational forms. I make no drawings beyond a simple chalk drawing on my work bench. Stealing words from Jackson Pollock, as I’m producing my sculptures there is a definite period where I spend time just getting acquainted, thus providing direction and evolution. I create to instill a degree of spectator confusion asking for responsive participation Although in recent years I’ve focused on horse sculptures, I’ve been inspired by such things as a reflection on the ceiling or an early morning dream, many that just vaporize, fortunately. I don’t see myself being trapped by a leitmotiv, however, I am definitely captured by geometry and the Cubist movement. I’m taken by the layering three dimensional effect seen in paintings by Braque and best describes what Donald Baechler defined, and I borrowed, “editing.” For now, each production is a study….never expecting perfection, as that would eliminate the search,* and for me, the end.

*Poet: Ancel Neuberger