“Everything I see is from the sun,” Murray said in 1986, recalling a vision that led to his art making. Murray described seeing a golden light and an eagle flying past the sun as well as deceased family members. He began scrawling in asemic script–something that looks like writing but contains no actual words. Murray’s practice fused Baptist Christianity with African American folkways that freely comingle doctrine with belief in magic and the powers of the natural world. “It is the language of the Holy Spirit, direct from God,” Murray said of his script-like drawings. He urged people to read his messages through a vial of water, believing that the pure of heart would be able to interpret them.
- Title
-
Untitled (Six Blue Spirit Forms)
- Artist
- Date
- 1970s
- Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 19 1⁄2 x 25 1⁄2 in. (49.5 x 64.8 cm)
- Credit Line
-
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Gift of Chuck and Jan Rosenak and museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- tempera on paper
- Classifications
- Keywords
-
- Abstract
- Object Number
-
1997.124.122
- Palette
- Linked Open Data
- Linked Open Data URI
