Robert Murray
Robert Murray (Canadian, b. 1936), Skagway, 1976-77, bent and bolted aluminum plate and enamel paint. Collection of the Kelowna Art Gallery. Gift of Toni Onley, 2001. Photo: Yuri Akuney, Digital Perfections
Skagway, is an abstract metal sculpture by renowned Canadian artist Robert Murray. Located on the Gallery’s North Terrace, adjacent to Cawston Avenue, Skagway is recognized for its rich, red colour and lively asymmetry. Nearly 9 feet wide, its folding and curving plates of metal conjure both a simplicity and a ruggedness that is quintessential to Murray’s work. Created with sections of enameled, aluminum plates, Skagway highlights Murray’s proficiency in transforming industrial metal materials at monumental scales.
Skagway’s namesake and point of inspiration is a small city in southeast Alaska, recognized for its towering scenery and sweeping mountain views. Murray often explored environmental themes in his artwork through experimentation with shape, colour, and complexity of form.
Skagway was donated to the Kelowna Art Gallery by the distinguished Canadian artist Toni Onley (1928-2004) in 2001. Onley and Murray became close friends after bonding over their love of flying airplanes, a hobby that allowed them to explore the vastness of the Canadian landscape. Over the years they proceeded to become good friends and collaborators, often travelling together in their seaplanes to remote, northern locations to paint and photograph the land.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Robert Murray (b. Vancouver, 1936) grew up in Saskatchewan and has been living in the United States since 1960. He graduated from at the Regina School of Art (now the University of Regina) in 1958 and attended the famed Emma Lake Artist Workshop. In 1999 Murray was given a large survey exhibition by the National Gallery of Canada and has been represented by several prestigious galleries throughout his career. Murray was awarded the Order of Canada in 2000 and received the Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation Grant Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2018.
Murray painting on his first plane, a Fleet 80 Canuck, in the Georgian Bay area of Lake Huron. Photograph by Cintra Lofting Murray. © 1976 Olympia Galleries, Ltd.
IMAGES
Robert Murray (Canadian, b. 1936), Skagway, 1976-77, bent and bolted aluminum plate and enamel paint. Collection of the Kelowna Art Gallery. Gift of Toni Onley, 2001. Photo: Yuri Akuney, Digital Perfections
Robert Murray (Canadian, b. 1936), Skagway, 1976-77, bent and bolted aluminum plate and enamel paint. Collection of the Kelowna Art Gallery. Gift of Toni Onley, 2001. Photo: Yuri Akuney, Digital Perfections
