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2F DETROIT FREE PRESS   ENTERTAINMENT   SUNDAY, MARCH 12, 2000 

KERI GUTEN COHEN | GALLERIES

Freedoms dominate three shows

Elizabeth Murray
Through April 8
Susanne Hilberry Gallery 
555 S. Old Woodward, Birmingham
11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday
248-642-8250



[[image - photograph of Keri Guten Cohen]]

In the funky, shaped canvases of Elizabeth Murray at Susanne Hilberry Gallery in Birmingham, the freedom exhibited by formerly stifled Russian artists at the Elaine L. Jacob Gallery at Wayne State University and the shock pieces of "Fear No Art" in Pontiac, pre-spring shows reveal artists who are not afraid to express themselves.

New York artist Murray is certainly the big name here. This former Midwesterner, who has been a visiting artist at WSU, was a pioneer of shaped canvases, which brought art off the wall and into the realm of sculpture.

Her wood-and-canvas structures are layered with biomorphic shapes and richly slathered in bold colors. These happy, goofy paintings straddle the line between abstract and representational, and are cartoonish. Murray acknowledges a fondness for cartoons that dates to her childhood.

Early in her career, which took off after she was included in the 1972 annual painting show at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Murray struggled against gender stereotyping. Because she painted cups, shoes and furniture, her work was labeled "domestic," though she counters that male artists, such as Paul Cezanne, also painted cups, but without the same criticism.

Murray's local show includes five paintings, four relatively new and one vintage. The difference between the old and new is readily apparent. In "Get Back" (1982), the edges of the canvas are more raw and jagged and the colors more subdued. Now her palette leans toward bright neon colors.

Two paintings stand out for their exuberant energy, their painterly qualities and their familiar yet abstract shapes.

"Rescue" (1996), with its sweet, round internal shapes and two appendages at the bottom, references a human heart with its muscles pumping and arteries flowing. Its colors are lime green and blue, with an infinite red in the center.

"Could Be" (1997) is a massive tangle of red, blue, green and yellow. It casts wonderful shadows and its center has a high-energy wavelike quality. With its four looping lines from each corner, the painting could resemble a four-poster bed.

Murray's work is beautiful, inventive, fun and not to be missed.