{"person":[{"sourceId":{"label":"Source ID","value":"600"},"lastName":{"label":"Last Name","value":"Murray"},"endDate":{"label":"Death Date","value":"1988"},"displayName":{"label":"Name","value":"J. B. Murray"},"objects":{"label":"Objects","value":[{"objectTitle":"Untitled","objectNumber":"2016.30.3","objectID":"5455"},{"objectTitle":"Untitled","objectNumber":"1985.35.18","objectID":"985"},{"objectTitle":"Faces","objectNumber":"1985.35.19","objectID":"944"},{"objectTitle":"Untitled","objectNumber":"2006.20.1","objectID":"3472"},{"objectTitle":"Untitled","objectNumber":"1994.3.4","objectID":"2185"},{"objectTitle":"Untitled","objectNumber":"2006.20.3","objectID":"3474"},{"objectTitle":"Untitled","objectNumber":"2006.20.2","objectID":"3473"},{"objectTitle":"Untitled","objectNumber":"1994.3.5","objectID":"2186"},{"objectTitle":"Untitled","objectNumber":"2006.20.5","objectID":"3476"},{"objectTitle":"Untitled","objectNumber":"2006.20.4","objectID":"3475"},{"objectTitle":"Untitled","objectNumber":"1998.10.35","objectID":"2527"},{"objectTitle":"Abstract Figures on Paper","objectNumber":"1985.35.20","objectID":"2169"},{"objectTitle":"Untitled","objectNumber":"2022.6.38","objectID":"8366"},{"objectTitle":"Untitled","objectNumber":"1998.10.34","objectID":"2526"},{"objectTitle":"Untitled","objectNumber":"2012.18.5","objectID":"5023"},{"objectTitle":"Untitled","objectNumber":"2022.6.40","objectID":"8368"},{"objectTitle":"Untitled","objectNumber":"2024.12.4","objectID":"9184"},{"objectTitle":"Untitled","objectNumber":"2022.6.39","objectID":"8367"},{"objectTitle":"Untitled","objectNumber":"2024.12.3","objectID":"9183"}]},"geographyDied":{"label":"Died","value":["Sandersville",""]},"biography":{"label":"Biography","value":"All of J. B. Murray\u2019s paintings display a non-discursive text scrawled alongside abstract patterns, from which ghostly figures appear to emerge. He made thousands of these works with a range of materials, including watercolor, crayon, tempera, felt-tip pen, and ink, on paper and on unconventional surfaces such as rolls of adding-machine tape, stationery, glass, and the exterior and interior walls of his house. The primary colors each had their own symbolic weight, from red for evil to yellow for divine power. He was compelled by his visions of a struggle between good and evil for the souls of humanity. As he said of the tall, spectral figures that fill his art, \u201cThem is the people what is living like God don't exist.\u201dUntil he had a spiritual experience in his seventies, John Bunion Murray had spent his life as a tenant farmer in rural Glascock County, Georgia. Born in 1908, he, like many Black Americans in the South, had experienced educational disenfranchisement and never learned to read or write. He was a member of the Pentecostal Church and deeply religious. As he would relate, one day he was watering a patch of potatoes in his garden and witnessed the sun descend and radiate prismatic colors through his yard. In a 1986 interview with art historian Judith McWillie, he recalled, \u201cI prayed and the Lord sent a vision from the sun. . . . The eagle crossed my eye\u2014it shade the sun. . . . You know an eagle can see farther than any bird in the world and that\u2019s why that I can see things some more folks can\u2019t see.\u201d Just as he first was awed by the transformation of the world through the arcing water of a garden hose, he would later interpret his paintings by gazing through a bottle of well water\u2014\u201cWater saves. You can\u2019t hinder water. Water will soak down and come up in another place.\u201dMurray\u2019s physician, William Rawlings, and the artist Andy Nasisse helped supply him with art materials and supported the recognition of his work, which was being exhibited in gallery shows of folk and self-taught art by the early 1980s. After he received a diagnosis of prostate cancer, his paintings took on a more amebic nature, as if this eternal battle for salvation was now happening at a cellular level within his body. He died in 1988.Allison C. Meier, 2025Text written as part of \u201cRethinking Biography,\u201d an initiative supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)."},"geographyActive":{"label":"Active","value":["Sandersville",""]},"geographyBorn":{"label":"Born","value":["Sandersville",""]},"beginDate":{"label":"Birth Date","value":"1908"},"firstName":{"label":"First Name","value":"J. B."},"textEntries":{"label":"Text Entries","value":["While we now appreciate the work of J.B. Murry for its artistic qualities, the artist himself made art strictly for spiritual and protective purposes; his abstract script formed thoughts that were like prayers, providing guidance and offering support to readers. When he first began painting, Murry executed his images on found objects and drew on cash register tape. His doctor, William Rawlings, gave Murry fine art paper and pigments after the artist shared one of his paintings with him. Even though the material was new to him, the motivation was the same: J.B. Murry was a preacher, and his artworks held messages. To interpret these divine messages, the artist would sometimes hold a glass bottle full of water up to the painted surfaces and conduct a sermonlike reading.Murry came to artmaking late. He lived his entire life in Georgia, where he earned a living as a sharecropper and raised eleven children with his wife. After his children left the family home, one by one, Murry started having visions and began to write \u201cin the spirit.\u201d His abstract passages are like painted versions of the experience known as speaking in tongues. The fervor of his technique, the lyrical lines that only he could translate, the obsessive output\u2014all have a transcendental quality. Murry\u2019s sophisticated abstract expression is rare in a field in which most creators are more literal storytellers.Brooke Davis Anderson, \"Spirit Water,\" in Stacy C. Hollander, American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 397.","While we now appreciate the work of J.B. Murry for its artistic qualities, the artist himself made art strictly for spiritual and protective purposes; his abstract script formed thoughts that were like prayers, providing guidance and offering support to their readers. When he first began painting, Murry executed his images on found objects and drew on cash register tape. Murry\u2019s doctor, William Rawlings, gave him fine art paper and pigments after the artist shared one of his paintings with him. Even though the material was new to him, the motivation was the same: Murry was a preacher, and his artworks held divine messages. To interpret these messages, the artist would sometimes hold a glass bottle full of water up to the painted surfaces and conduct a sermonlike reading.Murry came to artmaking late in life. He earned a living as a sharecropper in Georgia and raised eleven children with his wife. After his children left the family home one by one, Murry started having visions and began to write \u201cin the spirit.\u201d His abstract passages are like painted versions of the experience known as \u201cspeaking in tongues.\u201d The fervor of his technique, the lyrical lines that only he could translate, the obsessive output\u2014all have a transcendental quality. Murry\u2019s sophisticated abstract expression is rare in a field where most of the creators are more literal storytellers.Murray's paintings are actually \"spirit writings\" given to him through his personal communication with God. According to the artist, his basically calligraphic style is the result of the Lord's direction in moving his hand. Other writings are able to be deciphered only when read through a clear glass bottle filled with \"holy water\" drawn from a nearby well. Murray apparently had little formal education and worked as a sharecropper and farm laborer for many years. He now lives alone in a shack with no running water or electricity. His work has been included in several exhibits. "]},"primaryMedia":{"value":"https://collection.folkartmuseum.org/internal/media/dispatcher/1728/full"},"names":{"label":"Names","value":["J. B. Murry","J. B. Murray","John Bunion Murray"]},"displayDate":{"label":"Date","value":"(1908\u20131988)"},"id":{"label":"Id","value":"150940"}}]}