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John P Murphy

Vassar College, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Curator of Prints and Drawings

Northwestern University, Art History, Graduate Student

University of San Diego, University Galleries, Curatorial Fellow

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John Murphy (PhD, Northwestern University, 2017) is the Philip and Lynn Straus Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College. His book "New Deal Art: Culture and Crisis in the Great Depression" is forthcoming (Fall 2025) from Thames & Hudson's World of Art series.

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Aleksandra Koutny-Jones

University of Cambridge

Mey-Yen Moriuchi

La Salle University

Klare Scarborough, Ph.D.

David R Marshall

University of Melbourne

Clinton E Stockwell

University of Chicago

Dibyajyoti Sarma

International Research Journal Commerce arts science

Chara Kolokytha

Northumbria University

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Papers by John P Murphy

Charles White: The Politics of Print

Print Quarterly , 2019

Throughout his career, Charles White engaged closely with the ideas, institutions, artists, and i... more Throughout his career, Charles White engaged closely with the ideas, institutions, artists, and intellectuals associated with the radical left, and his prints and drawings circulated widely in the American Marxist press, including the Daily Worker, New Masses, and Masses and Mainstream. These publications stressed the need for politically motivated artists to dedicate themselves to activism as well as art, using print as a medium to educate and inspire the working masses.

Charles White's Global Perspective

Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, 2022

Chicago-born artist Charles White was arguably more famous abroad than in the United States durin... more Chicago-born artist Charles White was arguably more famous abroad than in the United States during his lifetime. This article charts his response to various global forces — Mexican modernism, the fight against fascism, the Cold War, and the Pan-African movement -- as part of a career-long commitment to human and civil rights.

Book review: Jody Patterson, "Modernism for the Masses: Painters, Politics, and Public Murals in 1930s New York" (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2020)

Kunst un Politik , 2022

Jody Patterson's "Modernism for the Masses" is a lucid, essential study focusing on New Deal mura... more Jody Patterson's "Modernism for the Masses" is a lucid, essential study focusing on New Deal murals in New York executed by artists committed to modernism. Patterson deploys sophisticated formal and iconographic analysis (enlivened by the generous reproductions of artworks and archival photographs), along with fine-grained historical reconstructions of the intellectual and social-political contexts, to demonstrate how New Deal murals were "contested sites for competing exegetical claims" about modernism, realism, public art and cultural democracy.

Art against Alienation: William Blake, William Morris and the British New Left

Journal of William Morris Studies , 2020

Historicizes the British New Left’s recovery of Blake and Morris in the 1950s at a moment of cris... more

Book Review: For America: Paintings from the National Academy of Design

The Burlington Magazine, 2019

Review of exhibition catalogue, 'For America: Paintings from the National Academy of Design' (New... more

Charles White: The Art and Politics of Humanism, 1947-1956

American Communist History, 2019

Examines African-American artist Charles White's association with Marxist publication 'Masses & M... more

Building Golgonooza in the Age of Aquarius

William Blake in the Age of Aquarius, 2017

Published in the exhibition catalogue, 'William Blake in the Age of Aquarius' (Princeton Universi... more Published in the exhibition catalogue, 'William Blake in the Age of Aquarius' (Princeton University Press, 2017), this essay explores the influence of visionary poet and artist William Blake (1757-1827) on utopian communities in the 1960s and 70s. Blake's mythical 'city of art,' Golgonooza, frames a discussion of how countercultural communards attempted to transform society into a work of art or 'visionary commonwealth.'

Athletic Aesthetics: Art, Craft and Bolton Brown

Art in Print, 2017

Brief overview of Bolton Brown's life and career as a master lithographer. Connects Brown's inter... more

Conference Review: Revisiting the Summer of Love, Rethinking the Counterculture (Northwestern University's Center for Civic Engagement and California Historical Society, July 27-29, 2017)

The Sixties: A Journal of History, Politics and Culture, 2017

Review of academic conference, "Revisiting the Summer of Love, Rethinking the Counterculture," co... more

The Left Front: Radical Art in the "Red Decade," 1929-1940

by John P Murphy and Jill Bugajski

This free catalogue, published to accompany the exhibition "The Left Front: Radical Art in the 'R... more This free catalogue, published to accompany the exhibition "The Left Front: Radical Art in the 'Red Decade,' 1929-1940" (Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, 2014), was produced in the spirit of leftist journals and pamphlets from the 1930s such as Art Front and New Masses. The exhibition (which traveled to New York University's Grey Gallery in January 2015) revisited a moment in U.S. cultural history when visual artists joined forces to form a “left front” to make socially conscious art. The catalogue explores the context and legacies of the John Reed Club and its successor organization, the American Artists’ Congress in the 1930s. Featuring contributions from scholars, graduate students and Northwestern undergraduates, the catalogue offers a broad overview of the industrial conditions, immigration, labor unrest, and anarchism historically associated with Chicago, as well as its commitment to social reform through such institutions as Hull House. The catalogue also features answers to the question "What is Revolutionary Art?" provided by a number of prominent artists, scholars, and activists in the Chicago community.

Exhibition Review: Regina Mamou, "Unfortunately, It Was Paradise" (City Gallery in Historic Water Tower, Chicago)

Contemporaneity, 2015

Review of a haunting series of photographs by Regina Mamou of utopian communities in the Midwest:... more

Exhibition Review: What May Come: The Taller de Gráfica Popular and the Mexican Political Print (Art Institute of Chicago)

Art in Print , 2014

Exhibition review of "What May Come: The Taller de Grafica Popular and the Mexican Political Prin... more

Blacklisted: William Gropper's Capriccios

Art in Print , 2013

This paper considers a portfolio of 50 lithographs, "The Capriccios," produced by leftist painter... more

Charles White: The Politics of Print

Print Quarterly , 2019

Throughout his career, Charles White engaged closely with the ideas, institutions, artists, and i... more Throughout his career, Charles White engaged closely with the ideas, institutions, artists, and intellectuals associated with the radical left, and his prints and drawings circulated widely in the American Marxist press, including the Daily Worker, New Masses, and Masses and Mainstream. These publications stressed the need for politically motivated artists to dedicate themselves to activism as well as art, using print as a medium to educate and inspire the working masses.

Charles White's Global Perspective

Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, 2022

Chicago-born artist Charles White was arguably more famous abroad than in the United States durin... more Chicago-born artist Charles White was arguably more famous abroad than in the United States during his lifetime. This article charts his response to various global forces — Mexican modernism, the fight against fascism, the Cold War, and the Pan-African movement -- as part of a career-long commitment to human and civil rights.

Book review: Jody Patterson, "Modernism for the Masses: Painters, Politics, and Public Murals in 1930s New York" (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2020)

Kunst un Politik , 2022

Jody Patterson's "Modernism for the Masses" is a lucid, essential study focusing on New Deal mura... more Jody Patterson's "Modernism for the Masses" is a lucid, essential study focusing on New Deal murals in New York executed by artists committed to modernism. Patterson deploys sophisticated formal and iconographic analysis (enlivened by the generous reproductions of artworks and archival photographs), along with fine-grained historical reconstructions of the intellectual and social-political contexts, to demonstrate how New Deal murals were "contested sites for competing exegetical claims" about modernism, realism, public art and cultural democracy.

Art against Alienation: William Blake, William Morris and the British New Left

Journal of William Morris Studies , 2020

Historicizes the British New Left’s recovery of Blake and Morris in the 1950s at a moment of cris... more

Book Review: For America: Paintings from the National Academy of Design

The Burlington Magazine, 2019

Review of exhibition catalogue, 'For America: Paintings from the National Academy of Design' (New... more

Charles White: The Art and Politics of Humanism, 1947-1956

American Communist History, 2019

Examines African-American artist Charles White's association with Marxist publication 'Masses & M... more

Building Golgonooza in the Age of Aquarius

William Blake in the Age of Aquarius, 2017

Published in the exhibition catalogue, 'William Blake in the Age of Aquarius' (Princeton Universi... more Published in the exhibition catalogue, 'William Blake in the Age of Aquarius' (Princeton University Press, 2017), this essay explores the influence of visionary poet and artist William Blake (1757-1827) on utopian communities in the 1960s and 70s. Blake's mythical 'city of art,' Golgonooza, frames a discussion of how countercultural communards attempted to transform society into a work of art or 'visionary commonwealth.'

Athletic Aesthetics: Art, Craft and Bolton Brown

Art in Print, 2017

Brief overview of Bolton Brown's life and career as a master lithographer. Connects Brown's inter... more

Conference Review: Revisiting the Summer of Love, Rethinking the Counterculture (Northwestern University's Center for Civic Engagement and California Historical Society, July 27-29, 2017)

The Sixties: A Journal of History, Politics and Culture, 2017

Review of academic conference, "Revisiting the Summer of Love, Rethinking the Counterculture," co... more

The Left Front: Radical Art in the "Red Decade," 1929-1940

by John P Murphy and Jill Bugajski

This free catalogue, published to accompany the exhibition "The Left Front: Radical Art in the 'R... more This free catalogue, published to accompany the exhibition "The Left Front: Radical Art in the 'Red Decade,' 1929-1940" (Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, 2014), was produced in the spirit of leftist journals and pamphlets from the 1930s such as Art Front and New Masses. The exhibition (which traveled to New York University's Grey Gallery in January 2015) revisited a moment in U.S. cultural history when visual artists joined forces to form a “left front” to make socially conscious art. The catalogue explores the context and legacies of the John Reed Club and its successor organization, the American Artists’ Congress in the 1930s. Featuring contributions from scholars, graduate students and Northwestern undergraduates, the catalogue offers a broad overview of the industrial conditions, immigration, labor unrest, and anarchism historically associated with Chicago, as well as its commitment to social reform through such institutions as Hull House. The catalogue also features answers to the question "What is Revolutionary Art?" provided by a number of prominent artists, scholars, and activists in the Chicago community.

Exhibition Review: Regina Mamou, "Unfortunately, It Was Paradise" (City Gallery in Historic Water Tower, Chicago)

Contemporaneity, 2015

Review of a haunting series of photographs by Regina Mamou of utopian communities in the Midwest:... more

Exhibition Review: What May Come: The Taller de Gráfica Popular and the Mexican Political Print (Art Institute of Chicago)

Art in Print , 2014

Exhibition review of "What May Come: The Taller de Grafica Popular and the Mexican Political Prin... more

Blacklisted: William Gropper's Capriccios

Art in Print , 2013

This paper considers a portfolio of 50 lithographs, "The Capriccios," produced by leftist painter... more