Event information
Norval Foundation presents a major survey of Brett Murray's sculpture, curated by Karel Nel, filling seven galleries with more than eighty works made over four decades. The show moves from his politically charged student work of the 1980s to the quieter, more personal pieces of recent years, and includes new works shown for the first time.
Murray is best known for sharp political satire, and this exhibition concentrates on his sculpture rather than his two-dimensional work. The animal world serves as a mirror for human behaviour, with primates, elephants, bulls, pigs and imagined hybrids rendered in polished bronze and marble. The postures of the animals raise questions about power, pride, fear and absurdity, balanced by a vein of empathy.
Murray draws on a wide range of references, from Walt Disney animation and East Asian vinyl toys to Brâncuși's polished forms and West African Baule figures. The scale of the pieces, including a monumental rabbit that towers over smaller ones, is possible because Norval's reinforced floors can carry works that other Cape Town museums cannot.