Ethan MurrowAmerican Ego

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The Boast of Clotilde, graphite on paper, 36 x 36 inches, 2013

Clotilde as the last slave ship to sale to America and was burned and scuttled in Mobile bay Alabama upon arrival, or so it is said. The story is uch disputed and seems likely to be more rumor, boast and tabloid from the mid 1800’s rather than fact. For example, the captain is rumored to have bet on the fact that he could successfully bring slaves into the States despite a ban. Slavery and America on the other hand, that is a raw and awful fact, something that continues to simmer and burn in a country that claims to have moved on. This drawing is intended to be both awful and funny all at once... like America.

« El arte es una mentira que nos acerca a la verdad. »

Pablo Picasso

Hoaxers and hucksters, obsessives, fake scientists, doomed explorers, pathetic inventors, liars, a make-believe whale, and two goats : these are the creatures of Ethan Murrow’s worlds.

Here are the mises en scene : waterside exploration with undefined, antiquated scientific equipment ; Victorian American aviation inventors with personalized jet packs ; early twentieth century marine bio-logists with fake meters and projectors ; and barefoot miners hawking dust, holding umbrellas, and leashed to women on tricycles.

The gestalt of Murrow’s work, hidden in the fakery and malfunction of his subjects, is a truth about Ame-rica. An honesty so veracious it can only be carried by the fictional accounts documented in Murrow’s videos and drawings.

Murrow is the grandson of pioneer broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow and though the man passed away nearly a decade before his grandson’s birth, Edward’s life hangs over Ethan the way notoriety often lingers over its descendents. Ethan says he finds himself « weirdly curious ; attracted and confused all at once » by his grandfather. And like many children or grandchildren of successful, famous people, a tension exists between being one’s own person and living up to the family name ; between trading on the accomplishments of one’s forefathers or forging one’s own path. Along with this tension, Ethan inherited his grandfather’s inquisitiveness about America ans a strong need to tell the truth.

The truth Murrow is attempting to share with us is buried in the collective of fictions that make up his work. As the viewer, he must become one of his intrepid explorers to find it. Here are some tools.

Murrow’s video works are elaborate recreations of narratives about characters, times, and places he makes up. He took an interest in performance and video work after a residency at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha, Nebraska in 2004. « Doomed Explorers » was is foray into the medium. Collaborating with his wife, Vita Weinstein Murrow, who shot the video and stills, Murrow scouted a loca-tion in the Pacific Northwest, created a variety of props and costumes, and defined the storyline.

Murrow appears in his videos and in doing so identifies himself with the flawed characters. The perfor-mance of the video is child-like play – fanciful dress-up and purposeless action – that is to say it is an excuse for the artist to be silly. « Doomed Explorers » is not silly, however, but a rather serious exploration of obsession and struggle. As an act of portraiture, it is a an indictment of the artist’s flaws and fears of failure. As an act of social commentary, it is both cutting and compassionate.

The drawings are based on phatographs and stills from his video and performance work. They are photorealist : Not recreations of the events, rather the renderings of images of the events in graphite. The perspective of « John McCarty, promoter of the mines and professional middleman, » for example, is that of a camera shot from above. The drawing retains the flattening effect of photography, an effect that highlights, certain details : the sheen on the gauge, the man’s veiny hands, or the wrinkly texture of the currency.

As a culture, we experience ourselves through photography-based media. « Dust Miners, » like the rest of Murrow’s work, trades on nostalgia. The characters reference 19th century gold rushers whom we have only visually experienced through photography that is stoic, posed, and direct. Murrow’s use of photorealism has the effect of bringing these moments closer to us. In short, he makes the unreal more real.

Murrow’s subjects come from a fascination with American mythology and that part of our national identity where we are pioneers, explorers, and inventors. « Pinto Brothers » tells the story of two early aviators attempting to launch and land using a personalized jet propulsion system. Murrow could have chosen to base the story in that of Lagari Hasan Celebi, a 17th century Turk who reportedly launched himself 300 meters using a cone filled with gunpowder, or the effete Montgolfier Brothers of Louis XVI’s France who were the first to launch a hot air balloon. Murrow chose the Wright Brothers as his model and, in doing so, plays upon America’s national identity. The men are shown in flat caps and suspenders. They are tall and thin with thick glasses and rigid jaws. When things don’t go well, one brother swipes his Stetson in an « aw-shucks » gesture.

« The Freshwater Narwhal Hoax » could have been about an Amazonian insect, but it is about looking for whales on the St. Lawrence River. With Melvillesque undertones, Murrow has marine biologists on streamer ships weaving a fantastic tale only to be exposed as frauds. The notion of freshwater whale is on the edge of believability. The University of Vermont Perkins Geology Museum proudly displays the bones of an ice-age era beluga whale found in 1849 on the shores of Lake Champlain. A website for visitors to the North Shore of Lake Superior playfully reports on « whale sightings » in Minnesota. There is something perversely American about the investigation in things that do not exist be they UFO’s, assassi-nation conspiracies, or supernatural aquatic life. The television show The X Files told us « The Truth Is Out There » and suggested « I Want to Believe ». Barnum and Banvard, the Murrow’s whale researchers, lure us into believing with cetacean broadcasters, artic re-projectors, and sonar buoys that attract whales.

The Narwhals Hoax is eventully exposed by intrepid journalists in a piece titled « Uncovering and dissec-ting a hoax is hard work but reporters and publishers are very good at that kind of thing. » When science fails, the media steps in to save us.

From 1951 to 1955, Edward R. Murrow hosted a five-minute radio program called This I Believe. During the program, guests made commentary about their personal philosophies. It was the rawest form of journalism. It was simple and democratic. Edward wanted to report the truth about what people thought. The truth Ethan is feeding us may be hard to swallow : We believe in glory as defined by fame not deeds. We believe in success as marked by riches not accomplishment. We will believe in anything if it dressed up in science until it is exposed by the media.

But there is another truth to the characters in Murrow’s work. The Dust Miners are rich with grit and perseverance. Pinto Brothers are patient risk takers. Barnum and Banvard are creative and industrious, earnest in their endeavors, be they misguided or not. The Doomed Explorer believes in himself. Though foolish and imperfect, Murrow’s characters are authentic and real. We should be so lucky that those qualities are also the truth about us.

Ethan Murrow’s America // Ric Kasini Kadour

Make No Parley, graphite on paper, 30 x 60 inches, 2013

This drawing is loosely appropriated from the painting «Fod Warning» by Winslow Homer and the title itself is from a joyously dark Walt Whitman poem about giving no quarter in the American Civil War. The Missile on the boat is a Noth Korean and Iranian mpodel, and the fish are cods, which are dying aay becaus of overfishing in the Atlantic. The drawing deals with machoism and idiocy, bravery and determination.

“The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.”

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America Volume I

«These new drawings are all about “America”. The idea led me to re-read Alexis de Tocqueville’s «Democracy in America» in which he examines democratic revolution through the lens of the United States. I find this book to be incredibly relevant today, even in it’s idealism. De Tocqueville wrote in the 1830’s about how a nation sees itself and grows and changes. He tried to define the upheaval and growth of the new United States in relation to the aristocracy and billowing change in Eu-rope. As is still the case with politics and culture today, he defined America in relation to Europe.

One of the reasons this text has remained so popular here is that like all countries, “Americans” are obsessed with declaring who they are and what they are through history,story and image. All nations crave legitimacy and a central narrative (whether true or false)helps build this. Whether right or wrong, de Tocqueville is one of the authors who firstattempted to clarify who we were and so I begin with him as a touchstone for the show. Other authors, artists and thinkers who have attempted to define “America” will also come to play but I will continue to rotate back to de Tocqueville because of this crossoceanic connection.The drawings will all deal with “Americans” images of themselves. These images will be deeply cynical, and also deeply sincere. I mean them to expose the flaws and the terrors and yet celebrate the inevitability of a group of people making big mistakes as they move forward towards a goal.

Kingdom, graphite on paper, 68 x 68 inches, 2013

Kingdom deals with the grand messy fiction that is Ameirca. I loosely appropriated the image of the Native American from a posed photo of Edward Curtis, «An Oasis in the Bad Lands», 1905, and the image of the Vikings is also similarly apporpriated from a more contemporary source of Viking re-creators. Kingdom wanders through royakty, colonialism, migration and claims of being first. Many US kids learn in school That Christopher Colombus was the first to sail to the «new world» of North America. We now know this was not true and Vikings, perhaps Portuguese fishing boats, perhaps even Chinese vessels on the west coast, all came before him. Ciolombus became famous because of the empires that came with him, his bravado, power and we now know, total brutality. The paradox of all this is that America may have been touched by others long before him but it was already settled hundred years before any incursion by the sea. All these stories of being first, of being in charge, or of being known royally as the «first» are all grand fictions. Many non-natives in the United States try to give some sort of recompense for our various slanders and wrongs against Native Culture. In my mind this is all little too late. Thus the term «calumny» at the bottom of the drawing.

Lord Elk of New Amsterdam, graphite on paper, 23 x 26 inches, 2013

Here, I’m interested in the desire of White America to appropriate, corrupt and steal Native American and «Ancient» Symbols. In particular this refers to clubs and organizations like the masons and the Elks who commonly coagulate different symbols, objects, images and histories for thieir own purposes, with little regard for their original use. The United States is very good at accusing others of discrimination with regards to Native Culture, but we should look in our own backyard. The «New Amsterdam» part of the title refers to the first name given to New York City by white settlers as a way to reference this early colonial moment in time.

Moby Dick, graphite on paper, 48 x 48 inches, 2013

In the American classic «Moby Dick» by Herman Melville, Captain Ahab believes he is locked in the battle with the white whale that has taken his leg. One of his mates implores him to relinquish this obsession saying, «Moby Dick seeks thee not. It is thou, thou, that madly seekest him!» In this drawing I pair a loose appropriation from an Albert Bierstadt of the American west with an image of beached whales. Bierstadt attempted to glorify the grandeur of the west and our destiny. Here I lock those claims together with the brutal reality of our effect around the world. Much of the beaching of whales is clearly woven together with our own mark upo the earth. We seek and seek, yet at what cost?

The Old Aristocratic Colors Breaking Through, graphite on paper, 48 x 48 inches, 2013

This title is a quote from de Tocqueville’s «Democracy in America» which appears more fully at the beginning of this document. This show also tells a story of American power and history via water and aquatic vessels. After all, water is one of the main things that has made us so powerful here in North America. It helped deliver eager and bumbling colonials, helped sever the country from the UK, it carried the slave ships that are such a despicable but central part of the country’s history, it powered the agriculture and industrial might of the interior and it is the surface upon which American military might now rests. This elephant is intended to be both trapped and about to burst out, a metaphor for power and wildness. In some ways it signifies the exotic and the figure above are supposed to be unsteady in their reaction to this and their purpose. Will They destroy this «other» or preserve and laud it? I see America as a country wrapped in a love of discovery but also filled with a history of being misinformed and misguided.

The Claim, graphite on paper, 48 x 48 inches, 2013

I am very interested in the ways in which an understanding of the term and idea of landscape in the United States derives and diverges from European attitudes and beliefs about land. Fot example, it is impossible to discuss the Hudson River School group of artists in the US without also discussing Caspat David Friedrich, Turner, Corot and on and onin this particular drawing I pair parts of a Friedrich painting «The Sea of Ice» with collected images from a Washington State Historical archive of early explorers in the west. This image deals with aspiration and devotional belief whether that be related to minig or folloing a prophet. The white square is intended to refer to a hopeful location, a possible resource claim as well as a picture plane or a photographic framing device.

Early Warning System, graphite on paper, 36 x 36 inches, 2013

Able was one of the first monkeys to survive a ride into space, thanks to NASA. He died soon after, an important, if infortunate and dark, part of a bold and hard headed race to first and successful in the realms beyond earth. Here some distant cousin of Able’s pilots a jury rigged (or make-do) boat of suspect use and utility. A hurricane warnong flag lies off the vessel. Here I nod to the very necessary but flawed science of warning systems that are scattered throughout America. I grew up near an old and now almost defunct nuclear power plant. The sirens that were designed to let us know of an anatomic disaster were loud, frightening and also mostly ignored even though they regularly went off during tests. Everyone in the community knew there was a very little chance we could escape should an unfortunate event occur. The valleys and tiny roads of New England could never accomodate a mass exodus. I see warning systems like this as very necessary but also eternally problematic and representative of technologies inability to solve problems fully. One only has to look back at hurricane Katrina to see how in he end it is human decision making and error that matter and are the final important factors.

Ethan Murrow

EDUCATION

2002University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC. Master of Fine Arts degree in drawing, painting and sculpture

1998Carleton College, Northfield, MN : B.A. in Studio Arts with a focus on painting and printmaking. Cum Laude with Distinction in The Arts.

FILMOGRAPHY

2008“Dust,” Official Selection, 46th annual New York Film Festival, New York, NY Co-writer, actor and nar-rator, produced with Harvest Films, Santa Monica, CA

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2013”American Ego”, La Galerie Particulière, Paris, FranceThe Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences, Charleston WV

2012Obsolete, Venice, CA”New Works by Visiting Artists” Graphic Studio Gallery, Dublin, Ireland”Like, Comment, Share” Katzen Arts Center, and Museum, Washington D.C.

2011Winston Wachter, New York, NY”The Universe - Seeing is Knowing” The Weitz Center Museum, Carleton College, Northfield, MN”Momentum House” , La Galerie Particulière, Paris, France

2010Fast Forward - Four for the Future» Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, NMWinston Wachter, Seattle, WAObsolete, Venice, CAKendall College of Art and Design, Grand Rapids, MI

2009Winston Wachter Fine Art, New York, NY“H20 Film on Water” Reeves Contemporary, New York, NY“On Paper” Jenkins Johnson, New York, NY

2010“But is it Drawing?” Brattleboro Museum of Art, Brattleboro, VT

2008“New Prints” The International Print Center, New York, NYD3 Gallery, Santa Monica, CAObsolete Gallery, Venice, CA

2007Winston Wachter Fine Art, Seattle, WA

2006Firehouse Center For The Visual Arts, Burlington, VT

2005Obsolete Gallery, Venice, CAYoungblood Gallery, Atlanta, GAReeves Contemporary, New York, NY"The Ever Changing Landscape" The Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft Louisville, KY

2004MPG Contemporary, Boston, MA"Building a Legacy" The Bemis Center, Omaha, NERobert Rentz Gallery, Richmond, VA"Land" Colby Sawyer College Art Gallery New London, NH

2003Aiken Center for the Arts, Aiken, SCSpheris Gallery, Bellows Falls, VT“Space Lab” Spaces Gallery, Cleveland, OH"Charcoal" Reeves Contemporary, New York, NYThe Viewing Room, New York, NY"Violent Violence" Gallery Art et Amicitiae, Amsterdam, HollandDoll-Anstadt Gallery, Burlington, VT

2002Mitten Gallery, Harrisonburg, VA"Coloring Words" The Fotogalerie, Fringe Club, Hong Kong"New Currents in Contemporary Art" Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, NC

2001International Sculpture Center at Grounds For Sculpture, Hamilton, NJMPG Contemporary, Boston, MA

TEACHING

2009-presentGraduate Advisor, Undergraduate Faculty in PaintingThe School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

2010Dayton Hudson Distinguished Visiting Artist and Teacher. Carleton College, Northfield, MN

2004-06Instructor of painting, drawing, sculpture and contemporary practice. The Northwest School, Seattle, WA

2003-04Instructor of advanced painting, Artist in Residence, summer sessions. Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR

2002-03Adjunct Instructor of painting, drawing and two-dimensional design. AppalachianState University, Boone, NC

2002Adjunct Instructor of drawing, summer session. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC

2001-02Teaching Fellow with full responsibility for 3-D Design and drawing classes. University of North Ca-rolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC

2001Teaching Assistant, foundations, method and theory. University of North Carolinaat Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC

RELATED PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2013Visiting Artist - guest lecturer and critic, juror of exhibitionUniversity of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD

2010 - presentCritic for Arts Section, Huffington Post

2010Visiting Artist – guest lecturer, student critiques and solo show. Kendall College of Art and Design, Grand Rapids, MIArtist Lecture - Drawing, Video and Film workBrattleboro Museum of Art, Brattleboro, VT

2008Artist Lecture on limited edition prints made with the Tamarind Institute. The International Print Cen-ter, New York, NY

2007Visiting Artist and Critic – guest lecturer, graduate critiques, solo show. MFA in Visual Arts program, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NCVisiting Artist – panel lecturer for senior class on professional practices. Undergraduate Art Depart-ment, Trinity College, Hartford, CT

2005Thesis Critic – thesis advisor, private and public critiques for architecture student. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Architecture School, Cambridge, MA

2004-05Visiting Artist – guest lecturer for the professional art practices program. Undergraduate Art Depart-ment, Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle, WA

2003Visiting Artist and Critic – public guest lecturer, graduate critiques. Undergraduate and Graduate Departments, Burren College of Art, IrelandVisiting Artist – guest lecturer for mid career artist professional practices program. The Mint Mu-seum of Art, Charlotte, NC

RESIDENCIES, FELLOWSHIPS, AWARDS

2011Award for Teaching Excellence, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MAArtist in Residence at the Red Stables, courtesy of the City of Dublin, invited to create limited edi-tion lithographs with master printers. Supported by SMFA Faculty Enrichment Grant. The Graphic Studio, Dublin, Ireland

2007Artist in Residence, invited to create three limited edition lithographs with master printers. The Ta-marind Institute, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

2004Artist in Residence, Fellowship. The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NEArtist in Residence. Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT

2001Outstanding Student Achievement Award for Sculpture. The International Sculpture Center, Hamil-ton, NJ

1998The Sigrid and Erling Larsen Award for creative excellence in the arts. Carleton College, Northfield, MN

1996Hyslop-Warnholtz Artist’s Grant, for travel and intensive study in Ireland. Burren College of Art, Bally-vaughn, Ireland, Carleton College Art Department

PRESS

Forthcoming: “Draw the Line” A survey on drawing by Magma Books in association with Elephant Magazine. Featuring60 artists. Published by Laurence King. To be Published in Spring 2013

Forthcoming: “100 Boston Artists” A survey of contemporary artists working in Boston. Schiffer Publishing. To bepublished Spring 2013

María Lujan Torralba “Explorer of Artifice” Lamono (Spain) Issue #90 Spring 2013 pages 96-105

“The New Collectors Book” New York: Basak Malone, 2013 A survey of contemprary artists

Priscilla Frank “Ethan Murrow’s Narcissistic Excess Lands at Obsolete Gallery” Huffington Post, October 22, 2012

“The Works of Ethan Murrow” Juxtapoz online July 12, 2012

Vincent Delaury “A la Pointe du Crayon” L’Oeil (France), April 2011

AGNI (featured artist, essay) Spring #73, 2011

Wesley Pulkka “The Future is Now” Albuquerque Journal Sunday, February 27, 2011

Courtney Jordan “Rendering Hoaxes and Hijunks” Drawing, Spring 2011,

Gayle Clamens “Meteorites” The Seattle Times, December 16, 2010

Gary Fagin “Impossible Quest” KUOW (npr) radio interview and review November 18, 2010

Tim Appelo “Curator’s Eye” City Arts, October 31st, 2010

Carol Vogel, “Water Shows on the Go” New York Times July 30, 2009

“Ethan Murrow” Los Angeles: Obsolete Books, 2008, 116 pages with an essay by Ric Kasini Kadour

ZYZZYVA, (featured artist, five page insert), Fall 2008, 87-91

Leah Ollman, “Low tech tales from the past,” Los Angeles Times April 4, 2008, E24

Robert Goldrich, “From Dust to Golden Silence – Directors’ Showcase,” Shoot March 28, 2008

Kimberly Brooks, “The Nudist, The Chemist and Artist Ethan Murrow,” The Huffington Post.com First Person Artist Series, posted March 15, 2007

Sheila Farr, “Ethan Murrow’s imagination guides ‘expedition’ in art,” The Seattle Times, May 11, 2007, 47H

Andrew Katz, “The Science of Fantastic Fools,” American Art Collector May 2007, 144-147

Fourteen Hills (cover, ten page insert of images and text), Winter/Spring 2007, 81--96

Fran Stoddard, half hour interview, Profile – Vermont Public Television, Oct. 6 and 12, 2006

Holly Myers, “Drive of the Human Spirit – Ethan Murrow,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 2, 2005

Ric Kasini Kadour, “Ethan Murrow: The Obsessed Surveyor” Art New England, October/Novem-ber issue, 2005

Harpers Magazine (featured artwork) Vol. 311, NO. 1863, August 2005, Readings, 15

Orlo, “Five Easy Pieces, Step by step instructions for a leaner, greener movement” The Bear Deluxe (featured artwork) #22 Spring-Summer 2005, page 7 and 16-19

Salt Hill (cover, four page glossy insert, featured artwork) Number 15, Winter 2004, 97-100

Deveron Timberlake “Highly Combustible” The Richmond Times Dispatch (featured review) Ja-nuary 21, 2004, 44

New American Paintings “Southeastern Region” (juried feature) June, 2003, 98-101Eve Thorsen “The Graceful Landscapes of Ethan Murrow” The Burlington Free Press (featured cover story and review) May 1, 2003

Marc Awodey “Two for the Show,” Seven Days (featured review), May 7, 2003

International Sculpture Center, «2001 Outstanding Student Achievement In Contemporary Sculp-ture,» Sculpture, (featured artwork) Vol. 20, October 2001, 48-53

COLLECTIONS

Cornell Fine Arts MuseumThe University of New MexicoThe Bemis Center for Contemporary ArtsLiberty MediaThe Guggenheim Foundation20th Century FoxHarvest FilmsBurton SnowboardsBurj Dubai – EMAARThe Copper Press

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