John Bunion (J.B.) Murray (also spelled Murry; 1908–1988) was an abstract expressionist painter from Glascock County, GA. His work has been shown among folk art exhibitions and is included at the American Folk Art Museum and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and has been featured in many museum exhibitions, including "Self-Taught Genius" at AFAM and "When the Stars Begin to Fall" at the Studio Museum. His work is best known for its codified use of colors and improvised script, called "spirit script," which could only be translated by the artist.
Early life
John Bunion (J.B.) Murray was born to John H. Murray and Moriah Macrae M. Bass in Glascock County, Georgia in the remote town of Mitchell. He attended school for one month at the age of six, then spent the rest of his life as a general farm laborer. Murray was unable to read or write in English. He married his neighbor, Chloe Kitchens, in his early twenties. Murray built a house in the neighboring town of Sandersville. He and his wife had eleven children, five of whom died within Murray's lifetime. By the time he was in his fifties, his wife had left him. Aside from doctor's visits and weekly services at the Mineral Springs Baptist Church, Murray lived in virtual isolation for the remaining two decades of his life. He died in 1988 of prostate cancer.
Religion and art
At the age of 70, Murray began what art historian William Arnett has called "one of the most remarkable and unlikely art 'careers' in the southern vernacular field" after he and his wife separated. After a decade of living alone, Murray dislocated his hip, and was forced to retire from farming and seek new existential perspectives. His first creations were shrinelike piles of found materials, rocks, and other debris strategically placed throughout his yard to repel evil that Murray believed loomed over all facets of life. He then began painting car parts, televisions, and other reflective material that he would then affix to his home in another effort to reflect evil and protect his home. The tradition of adorning one's yard with sculptures and totems, otherwise known as the "yard show," was a very common practice among African American artists, particularly from the south eastern United States. Other artists from northern Georgia, such as Eldren M. Bailey, Dilmus Hall, Ralph Griffin, and Howard Finster all created prominent yard shows.
In 1978, Murray experienced a religious vision while watering his potatoes which inspired him to produce a remarkable body of abstract paintings and drawings in the last decade of his life. Seeing an eagle descend from the sun, Murray believed that he had been granted a privileged religious insight, which was to be the inspiration for his work as an artist.
When I started, I prayed and prayed. And the Lord sent a vision from the sun. Everything I see is from the sun. He showed me signs and seasons and he tells me. He turned around and gave me a question to ask Him and I asked Him to see me mother. He brought her before me and two brothers... See, Spirit will talk with Spirit. And when I left there [the hospital], the eagle crossed my eye—a Spiritual Eagle. The Eagle can see farther than any bird in the world and that's why I can see things other people can't see. When I see between here and the sun is in a twinkle. It was then that I began to write these letters. Different writing represents different languages and folks. It's the Language of the Holy Spirit, direct from God"