Exhibition by teacher

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33386, 19 November 1973, Page 16

Exhibition by teacher

An exhibition of paintings by John E. Murphy, an art master at Christchurch Boy’s High School some years ago, and who has more recently returned to New Zealand after teaching in Fiji, is being shown at the Canterbury Society of Arts gallery. Although his training at the University of Canterbury School of Art was centred on sculpture. Mr Murphy has displayed a continuing interest in painting, and the work in this exhibition is clearly a development of the decorative approach that was previously characteristic of his output. Partly because of size and partly because of some reli■gious references, his present . work is suggestive of icon painting, but this is only so at first glance. By using finely textured passages with delicate overlays of glazed colour contrasted with abstract divisions of black and white and| inscribed with decorative motifs, he succeeds in keeping subjective references in a secondary role to what ap-i pears to be his main pur-, pose of creating a suave finish and immaculate design. Subjects include church windows, hills, a Victorian lamp, a Madonna, and a cross {resented in a range of cool harmonies. The exhibition will be open until November 18. i -G.T.M.,