John P Murphy
September 22, 1934 - January 5, 2013
John was born on Brooklyn Street in Port Jervis, NY, the only child of John Patrick and Marion (Heise) Murphy. After graduating from Port Jervis high school in 1952, John proudly served his country in the U.S. Air Force in the intelligence division, where he put his visual arts skills to use by creating maps. While stationed in San Antonio, he received a prize for Painting from the Witte Museum in 1953.
He applied to Parsons School of Design after his service ended in 1956. The school was initially hesitant to consider his application, as he hadn’t built a significant portfolio during his time in the service. John was encouraged to go back to the Air Force and “draw the men on the base.” He did so and was thereafter immediately accepted, ultimately graduating from Parsons School of Design in 1959. He went on to earn his Bachelor’s Degree from NYU in 1960 and his Master’s Degree in Painting from Pennsylvania State University in 1965, where he was awarded a Purchase Prize for painting in his graduate exhibition.
After college, John briefly lived in New York City where he began his career as a graphic designer in the advertising word. Shortly thereafter, he landed a job as Instructor of Art at Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont. His time in Vermont deeply influenced his love of nature, and is credited as the inspiration for his first series of landscape oil paintings. His landscapes at the time, like his figures, were very fluid and organic. Significantly, it was during this time that he created a series of paintings with collaged figures in high contrast silhouettes, which was clearly influenced by his graphic design background and the aesthetic of the 1960s.
In 1965, he moved to Suffern, New York, where he became Chairman of the Art Department and an acclaimed Art Professor at Rockland Community College. John was integral in founding the art department, developing the curriculum for a full matriculating degree and hiring a full-time staff of professional artists and faculty from New York City. He also developed a 2+2 program with Parsons, allowing students to complete two years of community college education at RCC, followed by two years at Parsons, giving countless students access to a well-rounded, world-class arts education.
His groundbreaking work at RCC coincided with incredible growth of his own as an artist, winning a Purchase Prize in 1964 for painting at the University Artists Exhibition at the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo, NY, and several grants for painting from SUNY Creative Research Foundation.
At RCC, he also taught overseas programs in East and West Germany in 1976-1980 with grants he won from the German Academic Exchange Service, introducing a new generation to German Expressionist painting and Bauhaus design (his students were among the first westerners to be allowed entry into the Bauhaus).
The German Expressionist painters from this time period were heavily influential to John. Through the 1970s and 80s, his work became much more angular, distilling his forms down to their most expressive essential shapes and colors. Using the scenery surrounding his beloved Adirondack cabin and the female form of his then-wife and muse, Mary, he produced some of his best work, exhibiting at the Edward Hopper House, Mount Aramah Exhibition of Rockland & Orange, Thorpe-Intermedia Gallery, and Rockland Center for the Arts all between 1985-1988.
In the 1990s, John’s work dramatically changed. Struck with several personal tragedies, his paintings became void of figures and color. Geometric landscapes evolved even further into modernist abstractions. By then he was also diagnosed with cancer and struggled to continue painting altogether. With willpower and a positive attitude, he beat an incredibly aggressive disease and resumed painting, although he was not able to produce the same volume of work as he had in earlier years. He moved back to Port Jervis, the same railroad town in the Hudson Valley of New York where he began, and his love of trains inspired his next series of work. Applying his same modernist aesthetic and experimenting with perspective, he found great beauty in rail cars, diesel engines and train signals. This work would be the content for a few local exhibitions, including his last shows in Greenwood Lake and Port Jervis, New York in 1996.
Toward the end of the decade, John’s ability to paint continued to wane as his health declined. His final paintings depicted aerial maps of lakes and landmasses, a fitting tribute to his earliest works in the Air Force, bringing his career full-circle. He spent hours studying weather patterns and topography, marveling at the beauty nature carved out of the Earth from above. His hope was to create a series and show it at the Air Force Base at Stewart Airport in Newburgh, NY, but his series went unfinished. John passed away on January 5, 2013 at the age of 78.
To his students, he is remembered as being a very patient instructor, always "coming to his students, wherever they were" in their craft - whether it was painting, drawing, sculpture or other media. He appreciated each of his students' unique expressions and endeavored to assist them in their progression as artists.
John is remembered by his daughters, Tana and Gabriella, and his granddaughter, Lia, as having a sharp, smart sense of humor, a fine intellect and a strong appreciation for the female form. He was a die-hard Mets fan (former Brooklyn Dodger fan), played guitar and wrote his own colorful lyrics to replace well-worn favorites. He credited laughter with his ability to beat cancer and was very “punny”. Most remarkably, he was able to withstand some of the most challenging experiences known to man; but, even then, his signature stubbornness, wit and strength always managed to shine through. His works of art now serve as a timeless tribute to his remarkable life and many impactful contributions to the art world.