Nina Murdoch (b. 1970, London) trained at the Slade School of Fine Art (1989-93) and at the Royal Academy Schools (1993-96) and was the winner of the inaugural Threadneedle Prize (2008).
Murdoch’s work is characterised by a meticulous technique resembling that of the early Renaissance, working in egg tempera on boards primed with gesso. Applying layers of translucent colour, sometimes scraping or sanding them down to apply further coats of paint, the surfaces of her paintings acquire a glowing richness of tones that respond to the light and illuminate the often bare and mysterious street or architectural views that she chooses for her subjects. In her early work Murdoch began with figures, progressed to figures in landscape and has subsequently developed into inhabited landscapes devoid of people. Murdoch’s recent work has moved increasingly towards abstraction, with reference to the geometry of the play of light and shade in urban settings. In simplifying the subject matter, Murdoch has allowed room for the painting: in effect, the paint itself has assumed greater importance. Since 2022 she has been exploring the medium of watercolour and pastel on paper.
‘When she was training at the Slade, the life room drawing class offered the opportunity to develop skills related to analytical modes of observation, but instead of the clear distinction of figure and ground relationships, she became fascinated by much more ambiguous attentions such as the point at with the body of a model touched the surround of background wall space. This could be defined abstractly as the points at which visibilities touched upon, or found continuity, within the invisible. Out of this labour, an aesthetic was being formed which could be summarised by the idea of a dispersal of gravity by light. Instead of the plumb line certainty of objective place, there was instead the production of a floating space without the clear distinction of a singular gestalt of figure and ground relationship’. (Jonathan Miles)