IT IS AN HONOR to present the work of Elizabeth Murray as The Museum of Modern Art's inaugural retrospective dedicated to a contemporary painter in the new Joan and Preston Robert Tisch Gallery. All stages of Murray's work since the 196os appear in this comprehensive exhibition. They include its period of response to Minimalism, its engagement with Surrealism and Cubism, and its travels alongside New Image painting and Neo-Expressionism, all the while forging its own unique idiom. The Museum's commitment to Murray's work began in 1983,when a painting and print entered the collection. It has been sustained ever since through acquisitions and displays of paintings, prints, and drawings. Moreovm; in 1995, Murray was selected to curate an Artist's Choice exhibition here: Elizabeth Murray: Modern Women at The Museum of Modern Art. Thus her relationship with the Museum is of long standing, and now takes its most ambitious form yet.

Director's Foreword  6

Acknowledgments  7

Elizabeth Murray: Shape Shifter lO

Plates  82

Interview with Elizabeth Murray 162

Chronology 198

Bibliography 209

Exhibition History 222

Index of Plates 233

Lenders to the Exhibition 235

Trustees of The Museum of Modern Art 236