GENERAL DESCRIPTION
In March of 1925, two years after he began making art, Gerald Murphy exhibited Watch at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris. Watch is both personally symbolic and coolly analytical. In a letter, Murphy wrote that he was "always struck by the mystery and depth of the interiors of a watch—its multiplicity, variety, and feeling of movement, and man's grasp at perpetuity." Beginning with a linear study on graph paper, the artist visually exploded and pieced together two timepieces with specific biographical associations. One was a railroad watch designed for his family’s company, Mark Cross. The other was a gold pocket watch given to him by his wife Sara.
The heroic scale of Murphy’s painting reflects his fascination with modern machinery’s complexity and efficiency. The huge canvas is filled with overlapping, interlocking forms representing gears, dials, wheels, hands, winders, and screws in metallic and vivid colors. Its palette enhances the visual tension, as vibrant shades of orange and yellow share boundaries with a range of cooler blues and grays.
In fragmenting the timepieces and incorporating multiple points of view, Watch testifies to the ever-changing nature of time itself. It also evokes the cubist practice of representing the dynamic act of seeing through a seemingly arbitrary collection of visual data from various perspectives.
Adapted from
- William Keyse Rudolph, DMA Label copy (1963.75.FA), August 2005.
- Eleanor Jones Harvey, "Gerald Murphy, Watch," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Charles Venable (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 1997), 251.
- "Gerald Murphy, Watch," DMA Connect, Dallas Museum of Art, 2012.
NOTES
This note was tagged #routed in June 2015 and Sue's revisions (in a Word doc created by ASG) have been applied to the note as of October 2015. As of January 2017 I am adding the #draft tag to this note so that it is harvested to Google Drive. Once I am sure that all pending TMS or Piction data entry is complete, I will remove the #routed tag, add the #complete tag, and move the Google Doc to Queta's folder so that it is not re-routed to Sue.
I cataloged and completed the records in Piction including Murphy's letters and the image pulled from Wikimedia. I am removing the %PictionMW and %UMO pending tags. All revisions are complete and I am removing the routed tag and replacing with the completed tag. The GDoc has been moved to Queta's folders for review. (3/2/2017)
Removing TMS tag because Rule in place.
teaching ideas source- Adapted from~"Gerald Murphy, Razor," DMA Connect, Dallas Museum of Art, 2012; "Modern Art, Guide to Looking," Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, 1976.
Ideas take Shape- teaching packet.
Additional resources in Archives described in the Murphy, Razor object draft. 1963.74.FA Murphy, Razor
Catalogue essays specific to object
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Produced- Cap d'Antibes
Produced- Paris
Process/materials
oil paint: AAT
canvas: AAT
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
black (color): AAT: 300130920
brown (color): AAT: 300127490
gray (color): AAT: 300130811
yellow (color)
gears: AAT: 300125467
pocket watch: AAT: 300200088
balance springs: AAT: 3001195803
graph paper: AAT: 300014159
palette (color range): AAT: 300056166
Cubist: AAT
perspective (technique): AAT: 300056340
painting
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
1960 to 1963: Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts, gift of the artist (October 27, 1960)
From 1963: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Foundation for the Arts Collection, transferred from the above, May 30, 1963 [1], [2]
[1] Pursuant to the April 19, 1963 Agreement of Merger between the Dallas Association and the Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts (DMCA), the collection of the Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts was transferred to the Foundation for the Arts.
[2] The Foundation for the Arts is a non-profit corporation created as a title-holding entity to serve the people of Dallas but to operate independently of the City. The Dallas Museum of Art (at its own cost) is responsible for the care, storage, insurance, conservation and maintenance of the collection, and agrees to maintain the highest museum standards in the management and handling of the Foundation’s collection. The title to all works of art purchased or otherwise acquired by the Foundation for the Arts is retained by the Foundation.
AUDIO ASSETS
Scott Winterrowd, "Gerald Murphy and American Brand Cubism," lecture (August 27, 2008). Draft transcript on TAZ. Audio file: gt_20080827_Gerald_Murphy_Scott_Winterrowd.mp3.
13317420: UMO; Object numbers added to Piction.
Blithe Spirits: songs, art, poetry, and letters celebrating the legacy of Sarah and Gerald Murphy; Southeastern Festival of Song. Artful Musing recordings from Arts and Letters Live events in 2008. Two recordings, object numbers added to Piction.
13317004: UMO; Object numbers added to Piction.
13317156: UMO; Object numbers added to Piction.
Keyse, gallery talk for Making it New exhibition, "Cubism 101"- object numbers added to Piction
13317677: UMO; Object numbers added to Piction.
Artists, Mentors, and Friends: Picasso, Léger, and Murphy. Gallery talk by Shannon Karol, 9/4/2013.
13310682: UMO; Object numbers added to Piction.
The Surface is Part of the Depth, Deborah Rothschild gallery talk, 9/10/2008.
13317709: UMO; Object numbers added to Piction.
Lisa Klaussmann, Arts and Letters Live lecture on her book, Villa America, 8/13/2015.
251965344: UMO; Object numbers added to Piction.
Deborah Rothschild Antenna audio tour interview for Making it New exhibition.
13310610: UMO; Object number added to Piction.
Heather MacDonald, A Question of Light tour, 5/14/2011.
264283028: UMO; Object number added to Piction.
Shannon Karol, Provocative Comparisons gallery talk, 9/21/2-11.
264295821: UMO; Object number added to Piction.
Amanda Vaill and Dorothy Kosinski, "The Great Fair: Sara and Gerald Murphy and the World of 1920s Modernism," Lecture in conjunction with Making It New: The Art and Style of Sara and Gerald Murphy, June 1 - September 14, 2008. File Name- MurphyModernism. (Located on DMA Archives, Digitized Audio and Video Recordings.) Draft of transcript from "The Great Fair," (July 7, 2008) located on TAZ. Audio file: 20080724_AmandaVaill_theGreatFair.
13318167: UMO; Object number added to Piction.
VIDEO ASSETS
Linda Patterson Miller, "Gerald Murphy in Letters, Literature and Life," Lecture (Letters from the Lost Generation: Gerald and Sarah Murphy and Friends) in conjunction with Making It New: The Art and Style of Sara and Gerald Murphy, June 1 - September 14, 2008. File Name- MurphyLetters. (Located on DMA Archives, Digitized Audio and Video Recordings.) Draft of transcript from "Gerald Murphy in Letters, Literature and Life," (August 15, 2008) located on TAZ. Audio file: 20080815_LindaPattersonMiller.mp3. Object numbers added to Piction.
12936449: UMO; Object number added to Piction.
13318175: UMO; Object number added to Piction.
"Making It New: The Art and Style of Sara and Gerald Murphy," 2007. Video created by Williams College Museum of Art for the "Making It New" exhibition. Object numbers added to Piction.
12936457: UMO; Object number added to Piction.
IMAGE ASSETS
Photographs and sketches of pocket watches shown in TMS. These are in the object photography category in Piction and I cannot add the object number as I would with other Piction assets. This may lead to the images not appearing online or appearing alongside photos of the actual object. I do not know how to fix without a Piction manager on staff. (EAs- 1/25/2017)
Preparatory drawing- 8662163: UMO
Photograph of a Mark Cross pocket watch with Roman numerals- 8662177: UMO
Photograph of a Mark Cross pocket watch with Arabic numerals- 8662234: UMO
Photograph of the interior of a Mark Cross pocket watch- 8662291: UMO
SIX LETTERS FROM MURPHY TO MACAGY. Three of these are double-sided and cataloged as recto/verso. The first page of each letter was scanned as a pdf. These are also duplicated as tif files. The 2nd side of the double-sided items only appears in Piction as a tif file. The object numbers for Watch and Razor have been entered in Piction.
Letter from Gerald Murphy to Douglas MacAgy; 1960-04-18; page 1 of 1
Personal stationary 'Gerald Murphy, Snedens Landing, Palisades, New York'; correspondence
Murphy-MacAgy_1960-04-18_001.pdf
253362685: UMO
Murphy-MacAgy_1960-04-18_001.tif
253365721: UMO
Letter from Gerald Murphy to Douglas MacAgy; 1960-04-26; recto of single page
Personal stationary 'Gerald Murphy, Snedens Landing, Palisades, New York'; correspondence
Murphy-MacAgy_1960-04-26.pdf
253362695: UMO
Murphy-MacAgy_1960-04-26_001.tif
253365737: UMO
Verso
Letter from Gerald Murphy to Douglas MacAgy; 1960-04-26; verso of single page
Murphy-MacAgy_1960-04-26_002.tif
253365754: UMO
Letter (postcard) from Gerald Murphy to Douglas MacAgy; 1960-04-27; verso
Postcard recto image is Juan Gris, 'Le Violin' 1916 (Basel, Kunstmuseum), Nr. 3898; correspondence
Murphy-MacAgy_1960-04-27.pdf
253362705: UMO
Murphy-MacAgy_1960-04-27_001.tif
253365770: UMO
Recto
Murphy-MacAgy_1960-04-27_002.tif
253365784: UMO
Letter from Gerald Murphy to Douglas MacAgy; 1960-08-05; page 1 of 1
Personal stationary 'Gerald Murphy, P.O. Box 1022, East Hampton, New York'; correspondence
Murphy-MacAgy_1960-08-05_001.pdf
253362715: UMO
Murphy-MacAgy_1960-08-05_001.tif
253365798: UMO
Letter from Gerald Murphy to Douglas MacAgy; 1960-09-19; recto of single page
Personal stationary 'Gerald Murphy, P.O. Box 1022, East Hampton, New York'; correspondence
Murphy-MacAgy_1960-09-19.pdf
253362725: UMO
Murphy-MacAgy_1960-09-19_001.tif
253365812: UMO
Verso
Murphy-MacAgy_1960-09-19_002.tif
253365826: UMO
Letter from Gerald Murphy to Douglas MacAgy; 1960-09-26; page 1 of 1
Personal stationary 'Gerald Murphy'; correspondence
Murphy-MacAgy_1960-09-26_001.pdf
253362735: UMO
Murphy-MacAgy_1960-09-26_001.tif
253365841: UMO
WEB RESOURCES
- Gerald Murphy and Archibald MacLeish~Read about Murphy's friendship with MacLeish on Tom Jungerberg's DMAcanvas blog post (May 17, 2011).
- Literary Connections to the DMA Collection~Check out Shannon Karol's bibliophile friendly post for DMAcanvas (January 14, 2010).
- Gerald Murphy: 7 Years as a Painter~Take a look at the biography and images available on Kent Boyer's Doorknob Studio site (2013).
- V.I.B. Visit to the DMA~A blog post in honor of a visit to the DMA by Murphy's 11-month-old, great godson.
- Vimeo~Watch an animated video based on Gerald Murphy's Watch.
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
American Genius in Review (exhibition id- 10999)- exh catalogue- 12712873: UMO
An American Painter in Paris: Gerald Murphy (exhibition id- 11368 )- exh catalogue- 248086599: UMO
FUN FACTS
- Although Watch is an impressively sizable painting (over 7 feet on each side), it is not Gerald Murphy's largest work. That title belongs to Boatdeck (18 x 12 feet, location unknown), which shocked viewers at the 1924 Salon des Indépendants.
TEACHING IDEAS
RULES
Apply to objects where number equals 1963.75.FA
Category
rules_operator
AND
General Description
In March of 1925, two years after he began making art, Gerald Murphy exhibited Watch at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris. Watch is both personally symbolic and coolly analytical. In a letter, Murphy wrote that he was "always struck by the mystery and depth of the interiors of a watch—its multiplicity, variety, and feeling of movement, and man's grasp at perpetuity." Beginning with a linear study on graph paper, the artist visually exploded and pieced together two timepieces with specific biographical associations. One was a railroad watch designed for his family’s company, Mark Cross. The other was a gold pocket watch given to him by his wife Sara.
The heroic scale of Murphy’s painting reflects his fascination with modern machinery’s complexity and efficiency. The huge canvas is filled with overlapping, interlocking forms representing gears, dials, wheels, hands, winders, and screws in metallic and vivid colors. Its palette enhances the visual tension, as vibrant shades of orange and yellow share boundaries with a range of cooler blues and grays.
In fragmenting the timepieces and incorporating multiple points of view, Watch testifies to the ever-changing nature of time itself. It also evokes the cubist practice of representing the dynamic act of seeing through a seemingly arbitrary collection of visual data from various perspectives.
Adapted from
- William Keyse Rudolph, DMA Label copy (1963.75.FA), August 2005.
- Eleanor Jones Harvey, "Gerald Murphy, Watch," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Charles Venable (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 1997), 251.
- "Gerald Murphy, Watch," DMA Connect, Dallas Museum of Art, 2012.
Fun Facts
- Although Watch is an impressively sizable painting (over 7 feet on each side), it is not Gerald Murphy's largest work. That title belongs to Boatdeck (18 x 12 feet, location unknown), which shocked viewers at the 1924 Salon des Indépendants.
Archival Resources
American Genius in Review (exhibition id- 10999)- exh catalogue- 12712873: UMO
An American Painter in Paris: Gerald Murphy (exhibition id- 11368 )- exh catalogue- 248086599: UMO
Web Resources
- Gerald Murphy and Archibald MacLeish~Read about Murphy's friendship with MacLeish on Tom Jungerberg's DMAcanvas blog post (May 17, 2011).
- Literary Connections to the DMA Collection~Check out Shannon Karol's bibliophile friendly post for DMAcanvas (January 14, 2010).
- Gerald Murphy: 7 Years as a Painter~Take a look at the biography and images available on Kent Boyer's Doorknob Studio site (2013).
- V.I.B. Visit to the DMA~A blog post in honor of a visit to the DMA by Murphy's 11-month-old, great godson.
- Vimeo~Watch an animated video based on Gerald Murphy's Watch.
Notes
This note was tagged #routed in June 2015 and Sue's revisions (in a Word doc created by ASG) have been applied to the note as of October 2015. As of January 2017 I am adding the #draft tag to this note so that it is harvested to Google Drive. Once I am sure that all pending TMS or Piction data entry is complete, I will remove the #routed tag, add the #complete tag, and move the Google Doc to Queta's folder so that it is not re-routed to Sue.
I cataloged and completed the records in Piction including Murphy's letters and the image pulled from Wikimedia. I am removing the %PictionMW and %UMO pending tags. All revisions are complete and I am removing the routed tag and replacing with the completed tag. The GDoc has been moved to Queta's folders for review. (3/2/2017)
Removing TMS tag because Rule in place.
teaching ideas source- Adapted from~"Gerald Murphy, Razor," DMA Connect, Dallas Museum of Art, 2012; "Modern Art, Guide to Looking," Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, 1976.
Ideas take Shape- teaching packet.
Additional resources in Archives described in the Murphy, Razor object draft. 1963.74.FA Murphy, Razor
Catalogue essays specific to object
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Produced- Cap d'Antibes
Produced- Paris
Process/materials
oil paint: AAT
canvas: AAT
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
black (color): AAT: 300130920
brown (color): AAT: 300127490
gray (color): AAT: 300130811
yellow (color)
gears: AAT: 300125467
pocket watch: AAT: 300200088
balance springs: AAT: 3001195803
graph paper: AAT: 300014159
palette (color range): AAT: 300056166
Cubist: AAT
perspective (technique): AAT: 300056340
painting
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
1960 to 1963: Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts, gift of the artist (October 27, 1960)
From 1963: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Foundation for the Arts Collection, transferred from the above, May 30, 1963 [1], [2]
[1] Pursuant to the April 19, 1963 Agreement of Merger between the Dallas Association and the Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts (DMCA), the collection of the Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts was transferred to the Foundation for the Arts.
[2] The Foundation for the Arts is a non-profit corporation created as a title-holding entity to serve the people of Dallas but to operate independently of the City. The Dallas Museum of Art (at its own cost) is responsible for the care, storage, insurance, conservation and maintenance of the collection, and agrees to maintain the highest museum standards in the management and handling of the Foundation’s collection. The title to all works of art purchased or otherwise acquired by the Foundation for the Arts is retained by the Foundation.
AUDIO ASSETS
Scott Winterrowd, "Gerald Murphy and American Brand Cubism," lecture (August 27, 2008). Draft transcript on TAZ. Audio file: gt_20080827_Gerald_Murphy_Scott_Winterrowd.mp3.
13317420: UMO; Object numbers added to Piction.
Blithe Spirits: songs, art, poetry, and letters celebrating the legacy of Sarah and Gerald Murphy; Southeastern Festival of Song. Artful Musing recordings from Arts and Letters Live events in 2008. Two recordings, object numbers added to Piction.
13317004: UMO; Object numbers added to Piction.
13317156: UMO; Object numbers added to Piction.
Keyse, gallery talk for Making it New exhibition, "Cubism 101"- object numbers added to Piction
13317677: UMO; Object numbers added to Piction.
Artists, Mentors, and Friends: Picasso, Léger, and Murphy. Gallery talk by Shannon Karol, 9/4/2013.
13310682: UMO; Object numbers added to Piction.
The Surface is Part of the Depth, Deborah Rothschild gallery talk, 9/10/2008.
13317709: UMO; Object numbers added to Piction.
Lisa Klaussmann, Arts and Letters Live lecture on her book, Villa America, 8/13/2015.
251965344: UMO; Object numbers added to Piction.
Deborah Rothschild Antenna audio tour interview for Making it New exhibition.
13310610: UMO; Object number added to Piction.
Heather MacDonald, A Question of Light tour, 5/14/2011.
264283028: UMO; Object number added to Piction.
Shannon Karol, Provocative Comparisons gallery talk, 9/21/2-11.
264295821: UMO; Object number added to Piction.
Amanda Vaill and Dorothy Kosinski, "The Great Fair: Sara and Gerald Murphy and the World of 1920s Modernism," Lecture in conjunction with Making It New: The Art and Style of Sara and Gerald Murphy, June 1 - September 14, 2008. File Name- MurphyModernism. (Located on DMA Archives, Digitized Audio and Video Recordings.) Draft of transcript from "The Great Fair," (July 7, 2008) located on TAZ. Audio file: 20080724_AmandaVaill_theGreatFair.
13318167: UMO; Object number added to Piction.
VIDEO ASSETS
Linda Patterson Miller, "Gerald Murphy in Letters, Literature and Life," Lecture (Letters from the Lost Generation: Gerald and Sarah Murphy and Friends) in conjunction with Making It New: The Art and Style of Sara and Gerald Murphy, June 1 - September 14, 2008. File Name- MurphyLetters. (Located on DMA Archives, Digitized Audio and Video Recordings.) Draft of transcript from "Gerald Murphy in Letters, Literature and Life," (August 15, 2008) located on TAZ. Audio file: 20080815_LindaPattersonMiller.mp3. Object numbers added to Piction.
12936449: UMO; Object number added to Piction.
13318175: UMO; Object number added to Piction.
"Making It New: The Art and Style of Sara and Gerald Murphy," 2007. Video created by Williams College Museum of Art for the "Making It New" exhibition. Object numbers added to Piction.
12936457: UMO; Object number added to Piction.
rules
Apply To
Objects
number
Equals
1963.75.FA
source file
object_notes_3_c-0198.xml.nores